Believe In Your Calling
Lowery during an interview in his Atlanta office circa 1985.
Ric Feld/ AP
Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery (1921-2020), civil rights leader, minister, and nonprofit executive is a prime example of finding and leaning into your calling. Over the course of our lives, we doubt so many things: our careers, our relationships, even the outfits we wear. There are many hardships we must face in our efforts to be successful, so it is easy to doubt whether we are doing things the “right” way. Due to our doubts, we look for signs in the little things to confirm that we make the right decisions. However, Rev. Lowery emphasized that we must believe in and trust ourselves to make those right decisions. He expressed, “I kept waiting on that instance where God would knock me off the horse or off a bicycle, you know, and… a voice from heaven would say, ‘Hey Joe, you got to go preach, you know.’ But it, it never came.” [1]
Growing up, Rev. Lowery had to navigate multiple relocations, even recalling the time he had to move because his father believed he wasn’t in the most productive environment, “They came in wagons. They came in wagons and they came in, in--and as soon as cars came, pretty soon black folks came in cars, old cars most of it. But they came in cars and in wagons. And they road horses, but pretty soon they came in cars. And then I left Huntsville. My father thought I was getting a little bad company, and that I wasn't getting the best education. So he sent me to Chicago.” [2] Rev. Lowery always knew that he was meant to be in the church. He credited his relationship with his mother and the changes he saw in his father’s view of church as one of the reasons he knew he had a divine calling.
“But obviously, that didn't, it didn't work out that way because God had other plans for me. But she planted the, those seeds in me as a boy. And we lived--the back of my house, you go out across a field where we used to play. And the back of the church was on the, the next street. And so we walked, we made a path through the field to the back of the church from the back of my house. And I could walk it blindfolded because I walked it so much. And my father did not attend as much as my mother, but eventually he did. She, I guess she kept working on him until finally he came and became treasurer of, of the local church, although he vowed he would never be an officer in the church.” [3]
After he decided that being a reverend was what God was calling him to do, Rev. Lowery remained confident in his decision and branched into newer areas so he could continue to let his light shine. In the 1950s, Reverend Lowery became involved with the Civil Rights Movement. He had become friends with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Boston University School of Theology where King was a PhD student and Lowery was currently attending a school in Mobile.
The entrance to the Boston School of Theology
“…I didn't see him for a long time until he came to Dexter in Montgomery, and I was still in Mobile. And, of course, and then the boycott began. But I met him before the boycott at a meeting in Montgomery, the Alabama Council on Human Relations, and he spoke and I spoke. And after the meeting, we exchanged greetings and said we gonna preach--he was coming to Mobile, and I was going to Montgomery, we're gonna preach for each other. And we developed this friendship. Then the boycott started in Montgomery. And I was president of the Ministry Alliance in Mobile. And I raised some money and carried a few thousand dollars, I think it was about 3,000 dollars, which in 1955 was a tremendous amount of money. And I went up there for one of the Monday night mass meetings and carried this, this money to, to the MIA--Montgomery Improvement Association. And that was the beginning of our, our relationship. And then the Movement started in Mobile, and we, after the bus situation broke in Montgomery, we decided to--we were going to desegregate the buses in Mobile.” [4]
Reverend Lowery, second from left, at an antiwar March in Atlanta in 1970.
Once Rev. Lowery had strengthened his bond with King, he created a network of men that would lean on each other for guidance. Many of these meetings discussed the desegregation of the Montgomery bus system, and how these same principles could be applied to the buses in Mobile. He credited these meetings as the beginning of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, or SCLC.
“We were meeting, we were meeting in those days, [Dr.] Martin [Luther King, Jr.] and Ralph [Abernathy] in Montgomery, Fred Shuttlesworth in Birmingham and I was in Mobile, C. G. Gamillion (ph.) was in Tuskegee. And we used to meet in Montgomery every month to talk about our different trials and tribulations to strengthen each other, to commensurate with each other and to talk about strategies. And out of those meetings, came the suggestion to hold a South-wide meeting. And that's how the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was born.” [5]
Mr. Lowery, left, at a 1968 news conference in Atlanta with two other civil rights leaders, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, center, and the Rev. Andrew Young.
Once he created his network, he was able to accomplish a plethora of achievements. He was even recognized by The Honorable Tyron Brooks, state representative of Georgia. Brooks nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize award for his dedication to supporting the Civil Rights Movement and wanted to ensure Lowery was recognized before he passed.
“But I, I think it's a plus for the whole nation for a former President [Jimmy Carter] to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. And the fact that he's from Georgia and Dr. [Martin Luther] King [Jr.] was a native Georgian, now we have two sons from Georgia who received Nobel Peace Prizes. I'm going to nominate Dr. Joseph Lowery. I'm going to write a letter to Nobel Committee and nominate Dr. Joseph Lowery and urge them to consider granting him a Nobel Peace Prize. He'll be eighty-two years old soon, and I think he deserves it. He still works, carrying out that mission that he and Dr. King and Dr. [Ralph] Abernathy and Fred Shuttlesworth and C.K. [Charles Kenzie] Steele and T.J. Jimmerson and all those great warriors. That mission and that work that they started in 1955, '57 [1957] and on now, he carries on that legacy. I mean he's the dean of the [Civil Rights] Movement today. And, and I just think we ought to give people their flowers while they can smell them, give them their roses now because once they leave us, we can't do anything for them. Only God can take care of them once we--they leave us. So I'm going to be nominating Dr. Joseph Lowery as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. I'm going to write that Nobel Committee on behalf of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials. [6]”
Ambassador Update: I am enjoying my last semester at Tuskegee University and my ambassadorship with The HistoryMakers. I have been working towards gaining more real-world experience in the entertainment industry and bolstering my journalism portfolio.
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References
1. Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery (The HistoryMakers A2003.185), interviewed by Larry Crowe, August 13, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 6, Joseph Lowery recalls being called to the ministry
2. Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery (The HistoryMakers A2003.185), interviewed by Larry Crowe, August 13, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 2, Joseph Lowery describes his childhood environs, Huntsville, Alabama
3. Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery (The HistoryMakers A2003.185), interviewed by Larry Crowe, August 13, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 5, Joseph Lowery remembers his mother
4. Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery (The HistoryMakers A2003.185), interviewed by Larry Crowe, August 13, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 3, Joseph Lowery describes his Civil Rights efforts in Mobile, Alabama
5. Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery (The HistoryMakers A2003.185), interviewed by Larry Crowe, August 13, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 4, Joseph Lowery recalls the beginnings of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
6. The Honorable Tyrone Brooks (The HistoryMakers A2003.099), interviewed by Larry Crowe, May 6, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 6, story 6, Tyrone Brooks discusses nominating Dr. Joseph Lowery for a Nobel Peace Prize