Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery: “the dean of the [Civil Rights] Movement”
Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery (1921-2020), a civil rights leader, minister, and nonprofit chief executive is known for his participation in the Civil Rights Movement. Given the significance as we just celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Reverend Lowery and Dr. King were notable for their work together. The Honorable Tyrone Brooks (1945-), a member of the Georgia House of Representatives highlights, “I'm going to write a letter to Nobel Committee and nominate Dr. Joseph Lowery… 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 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… they leave us.”[1] Samuel DuBois Cook (1928-2017), the first African American professor at Duke University adds, “SNCC people--Lonnie [C.] King [Jr.], for example, who was head of SNCC for a while was one of my students at Atlanta University and yeah, [HistoryMaker] Julian Bond of course was a student at Morehouse [College, Atlanta, Georgia]. You had others in the Atlanta University system and in terms of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference it was a great deal of interaction. [Reverend] Dr. [Martin Luther] King [Jr.], himself, was involved who was my classmate at Morehouse, by the way, and [HistoryMaker Reverend] Dr. [Joseph] Lowery and all them were involved… sure and they were always on campus speaking, interacting, inspiring, encouraging and so forth. It was… a time of great excitement, the Civil Rights Movement was a time of great social awe, incredible vitality and energy and vision and sacrifice.”[2]
Reverend Lowery (1921-2020) speaks of the leadership of Nelson Mandela and Dr. King Jr.: “Mandela was patient, long suffering, visionary and all of those things, I think he had in common with Martin. I think that religion might have been the… one distinguishing factor is that Martin religious. He was a preacher. Mandela… was ethical and moral, but not necessarily as religious as a Martin Luther King. But both were great spirits… both were inspiring figures. Both had a great deal of influence because of their personal sacrifice, Martin's death, Martin was a martyr. His… martyrdom was death, Mandela's was imprisonment. They had… many things in common, and yet… there were distinguishing factors that I think made them individuals in their right; both great figures. I feel blessed… to have… known them both… I knew Martin much better for a much longer period of time… I think God was in both plans because I'm sure anybody else could have stayed in prison and been the inspiring motivating figure that Mandela was for all the time he was in prison. I'm not sure anybody else could have been in Montgomery at that time, and been as effective as Martin. Martin was the man, both by his training, by his disposition, by his personality, by his commitment to nonviolence, by his articulate abilities, and Montgomery was perfect, both by its geographics and it's demographics. So that… the men are, have parallel histories and, and similarities. And yet they're both distinct figures in our history, both great men.”[3] He adds, “it is no question of what Martin represented, black leadership. At that moment in history, he was the spokes person for the whole struggle to throw off the shackles and break the chains of racial segregation and racial discrimination. The Movement was Southern-centered, and Martin led the Southern Christian Leadership Conference… he became the symbol of our resistance and insistence on social change. And so when he died, it was a very severe blow. That's… the danger… of putting everything on one leader, that they can knock him off, and then… you're in a quandry. And so I think that we've moved toward the day when there are many leaders, in many fields. And I think we probably have more leaders today than any other time… So we have a proliferation of leadership so that if any one person is killed now, it does not, should not, would not have that same effect.”[4] He furthers, “I think now, we need a new birth of spirituality to begin with… the power of the Movement in those days was that it was morally anchored. It was spiritually based. It was not simply a political issue. And it was a political issue grounded in a moral issue so that it had the force… of the spirit behind it. I think we've got to have a new birth of spirituality. I think that black folks, like the rest of society, we have deserted the good spouse of spirituality. And we're shacking up with the prostitute of materialism and greed. That's incestuous affair that produces off springs with congenital defects like racism, sexism, greed, materialism, apathy toward critical issues… a turning away from the common good to seek personal and selfish gains.”[5]
Hazel Trice Edney (1960-), former editor-in-chief of the NNPA News Service and Blackpressusa.com adds in conversation about Black leadership, “Reverend Joseph Lowery [HistoryMaker Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery] probably said it best when I interviewed him and asked him this question; I said, ‘Reverend Lowery, how do we--how do black leaders deal with this president [HistoryMaker President Barack Obama]. He's just coming in. You know, what if he doesn't keep his promises to black people? You know, what if they're not satisfied?’ His answer was this: ‘We must speak truth to power no matter what color power is.’ And I believe we failed in that area. I believe--you know, just from a journalist's perspective… when I ask the question of black leaders, okay, what can this president do better? There's always an apologist, an apologetic kind of answer to that where people are afraid to speak truth to power… And I have to just tell the truth about this… it's about, you know, being afraid of losing access, or being afraid of not being invited… but if you're not impacting black people and the plight of not just black people, but the suffering people in this country, then what good are you doing in your position?”[6]
There was danger around every corner as Reverend Lowery (1921-2020) explains, “We were in the A. G. Gaston Motel meeting, planning the '65 [1965] Voting Rights crusade down in Selma. And one night--we were meeting in room thirty. Room thirty was the only great, big room they had in the motel. So we always met there. And I was still in Nashville. And I was catching the train that, going to catch the train that night, and then I decided to stay. I had to be in Athens, Alabama the next day for a commencement. And [Dr.] Martin [Luther King, Jr.] said, "stay here tonight. Why don't you just stay here? We're in this big room. We're gonna leave and you going to Atlanta. You stay here and go up to Athens." And so I decided to stay. They left, and I was lying in the room by myself, and I heard a train. And I said, I'm going home, I' mo get the train anyhow. And I jumped up and got my bag, got on the train, went to Nashville. The next day I drove my family down to Athens. That night, they bombed the motel. And right by the bed where I would have been sleeping was the gaping hole that the bomb blasted in the hotel. So I always thank God for letting me decide to go home and get my wife and go to Athens, Alabama the next day or I certainly would have been killed by that, by that bomb. But Birmingham was known as 'Bombingham’.”[7] Additionally, he adds that the March in Selma was, “Based on three things. One, the fact that it already had been--voter registration efforts had been initiated and rebuffed. Secondly, a black majority in the Black Belt of Alabama. If ever there were instances where blacks out to be able to vote, it was where they could hold office, and where they were the majority… and we knew the resistance would be fierce. And so that would get the nation on our side because the nature of the resistance always attracts attention and simplifies the process of change. The more, the more drastic the discrimination… the more obvious the need for change… And so that was why we chose Selma, those three reasons. And finally… the march was not supposed to happen that Sunday. By that time I was pastor in Birmingham. And we had… word that Martin, we might go to Selma and initiate the march to Montgomery… But John Lewis and Hosea Williams were in Selma. They vetoed Martin's [Martin Luther King, Jr.] edict and decided to lead the march anyway. And so they did. Hosea was, you know, a roughed individual and John was more identified with SNCC than with SCLC. So they decided the heck with what Martin said. They were going to have the march that day… And the results are historic, as you know, it's, that's history. It's called Bloody Sunday. They met them and turned them back and beat them mercilessly… they caught them with those night sticks and horses and beat them mercilessly. John got a severe blow to his head… which he suffered, which was a very serious matter. Others were hurt, gassed… And people became disgusted and outraged and infuriated at such fierce and vicious and violent resistance to people's right to exercise their first amendment rights and to seek the right to vote. And so that… the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of voting… We met with the governor for about an hour and a half. And at the meeting he was tearing up little pieces of paper on the desk all while we were talking. At the end of our conversation, he had a mountain of little pieces of paper on the desk. And I said to him, I said, ‘Governor,…I'm speaking to you now not as a civil rights leader. I'm speaking as a Methodist preacher to a Methodist layman. God's gonna hold you accountable for what you're doing in resisting what is right; said, ‘you're sewing seeds of violence. You're seeds of, of nullification.’ I said,... ‘God's gonna hold you accountable.’… right following that march, Valerie [sic. Viola] Liuzzo was killed. Later James Reed was killed… in Selma… and another man, preacher… in Lyons County. So that the violence that Wallace inspired continued.”[8] Carolyn Young (1944-), a civic leader who taught in the Atlanta Public Schools for over thirty years, names Viola Liuzzo’s murder: “when I would get (unclear), 'Eyes on the Prize' and show them a piece of it, said, ‘What you have to realize, this movement was not just a black movement.’ I said, we were talking about the Civil Rights Movement then. It was very foremost on their mind. I said, ‘You hear about Martin Luther King [Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.]. You hear about [HistoryMaker] Andrew Young. You hear about Ralph David Abernathy [Ralph Abernathy], Joe Lowery [HistoryMaker Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery].’ I said, ‘But, there were white people.’ I say, a lady by the--the first tombstone that Miss Lowery [HistoryMaker Evelyn Gibson Lowery] and I put up on Highway, I think 48 [sic. U.S. Route 80] off Selma [Alabama], was Viola Alousso [sic. Viola Liuzzo]. She had four children [sic.] and her husband was in the union [International Brotherhood of Teamsters] and I think they were in Michigan… Detroit. And… she was sitting looking at TV how they were beating these people and putting firehoses. She asked her husband, she left her children, came down to Selma. And, driving one evening in the highway, she had a black man in the car. That was against the law. You couldn't have a black man in the car with a white lady. And, I said, ‘They killed her. She gave her life.’ I said, ‘So, don't think that you hear them. You might not hear about those, those people. But, those people the three boys, Andrew [Andrew Goodman], Matthew [sic. Michael Schwerner], and, the three boys that were killed.’”[9]
Reverend Lowery (1921-2020) jokes: “I’m retired. I'm supposed to be retired. I don't get no respect, but I'm supposed to be retired. I've been a pastor of churches for almost a half century. And I guess you might call me a professional agitator. I headed a civil rights organization for twenty-one years. And, even now, I chair a coalition… of advocates… in the state and across the region. So I guess my occupation is preacher, advocate, agitator.”[10] He additionally explains, “Equity is pretty clear, and like the man who made rabbit sausage, you know, he ran out of rabbits.. he started using horses. And the… feds got on him and said, you're misleading… says, it's equal. He said, well, if it's equal, we might let you get by, but we understand it's, it's really horse sausage, not rabbit. He said, nah, it's equal. They said, what do you mean it's equal? Said, every time I put in one rabbit, I put in one horse (laughter). It's equal (laughs), you see… it may be equal, but it ain't equitable, and so I like the equity part of justice… and when people talk about diversity, I want them to include equity and justice… in the principle of diversity. So I hope that… I could be remembered as a preacher who preached truth to power in terms of equity and justice and love and human dignity, a small-town preacher… who the big city tolerated (laughs).”[11]
He reminds us: “I don't hear the holistic gospel. I don't see the holistic ministry that we've had before, that is, ministering to the whole person, not just charity, but love. Charity is seasonable. Love is eternal. Charity speaks to one aspect; love, to the total aspect of life. Love embraces justice. Charity can, can tolerate injustice. Love cannot. And I miss… the justice aspect… I want to make heaven my home, but I want to see my home here heavenly, as well. That includes justice and it includes an end… to disparities. It includes an end to the wholesaling of our people to jails… So I think that's the kind of thing people have got to wake up to and, and let justice roar down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.”[12]
Student Ambassador Weekly Update: Wellesley begins our semester on Monday, January 23rd, 2023. This week has been busy with meetings for my Black History Month Contest: meeting with Dean Maturana Sendoya in collaboration with the Office of Intercultural Education, meeting with Professor Fitzpatrick, my faculty advisor, in order to finalize and overview the contest timeline, etc. Additionally, I had meetings regarding an upcoming HistoryMakers event on January 26th, 2023 at the Black Student Union (Harambee House) where we will be promoting the contest as well as an event with the W. Collective, Wellesley’s fashion magazine student organization.
Notes:
[1] 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
[2] Samuel DuBois Cook (The HistoryMakers A2005.139), interviewed by Larry Crowe, December 8, 2005, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 2, tape 6, story 2, Samuel DuBois Cook describes civil rights activism on Atlanta's college campuses
[3] Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery (The HistoryMakers A2003.185), interviewed by Larry Crowe, August 13, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 6, story 1, Joseph Lowery contrasts the lives of Nelson Mandela and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
[4] Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery (The HistoryMakers A2003.185), interviewed by Larry Crowe, August 13, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 4, story 3, Joseph Lowery reflects on the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
[5] Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery (The HistoryMakers A2003.185), interviewed by Larry Crowe, August 13, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 5, Joseph Lowery shares political reflections on the 2000 and upcoming 2004 election cycle
[6] Hazel Trice Edney (The HistoryMakers A2013.339), interviewed by Larry Crowe, December 3, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 6, story 7, Hazel Trice Edney talks about the importance of accountability in black leadership, pt. 2
[7] Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery (The HistoryMakers A2003.185), interviewed by Larry Crowe, August 13, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 6, Joseph Lowery discusses his Civil Rights participation in Birmingham, Alabama, early 1960s
[8] Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery (The HistoryMakers A2003.185), interviewed by Larry Crowe, August 13, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 4, story 1, Joseph Lowery remembers the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march, 1965
[9] Carolyn Young (The HistoryMakers A2016.047), interviewed by Larry Crowe, October 4, 2016, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 8, Carolyn Young talks about her approach to black history education, pt. 2
[10] Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery (The HistoryMakers A2003.185), interviewed by Larry Crowe, August 13, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 1, Slating of Joseph Lowery interview
[11] Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery (The HistoryMakers A2003.185), interviewed by Larry Crowe, August 13, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 6, story 3, Joseph Lowery considers his legacy
[12] Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery (The HistoryMakers A2003.185), interviewed by Larry Crowe, August 13, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 6, Joseph Lowery discusses the role of social justice in organized religion
