Learning about Reverend Joseph Lowery
Tierney Macon - Tuskegee University
Renowned City Rights Leader | Co Founder of Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery was born October 6, 1921 in Huntsville AL. He has served in many roles throughout his time. He summarized himself as a preacher, advocate and agitator in the year-2003 interview with Larry Crowe. All of his efforts and actions taken has earned him the legacy known as the dean of the Civil Rights movement.
The HistoryMakers Digital Archive has numerous first person and second person narratives about the work of Revered Dr. Joseph Lowery.
Early Beginnings
He was called to ministry in an active way. He described himself as being very active in the Youth NAACP chapter. During his summers, he would work with youth activities that included: church and civic engagement. His passions continued enraging, bringing him to his calling as a minister. At a young age, he was a witness and victim to racial injustice in his own home. To take civic action, he went to his mayor to express his concerns and hurt that he endeavored. All of the events that took place prior and after were all a part of what he described as heavenly dimensions. He attended some classes at Alabama A&M. It was a council training school related to the university. However, he explains his collegiate journey at Knoxville College in Knoxville, Tennessee. I, myself, followed in my family’s traditions as well as Lowery. He chose Knoxville to fall into his father's footsteps.
The Mindset behind the Man of Faith
During his time at Knoxville, he met a man named Ben Evans, who was a Presbyterian preacher at Knoxville and the chap--and the pastor of the college. He described in his interviews with the HistoryMakers that he enjoyed his sermons and received many pieces of encouragement to get him into the realm of preaching.
His ideology of his faith incorporated community involvement and a better place for the fellow man, not just a spiritual reward aside from better treatment on Earth. As a religious person and college student, his ideology was beautiful to really learn about and take in. He explains in one of his interviews. “Not only make heaven your home but make your home here heavenly.” He valued the view of the gospel holistically “that the gospel speaks to the whole person, to his, not only his soul, but his mind and his body and his well being in the community.”
The Beginnings of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Dr. Joseph Lowery, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ralph Abernathy were a part of the foundational stories and moments. Learning about the early moments of the conference and its beginnings was amazing. That’s one of the best parts of the video archives. Learning from the original perspective that has been watered down and dramatized when it came to my first encounters of both: Dr. Martin Luther King, but also another civil rights leader- Ralph David Abernathy. One of the most notable things he accomplished with SCLC was the 1965 March from Selma to Montgomery, also known as Bloody Sunday. Lowery discusses how he and the rest of SCLC leadership chose Selma 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 were out to be able to vote, it was where they could hold office, and where they were the majority. So that was it--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, the, the more obvious the need for change.”
Putting it all Together
Looking at all of the content dedicated to Dr. Reverend Joseph Lowery, I was very excited to learn about his work and everything that he has been a part of. He left a long and strong legacy for the next generation of leaders and even preachers to learn from.