Civil Rights Icon Joseph Lowery dies at 98

Idaeo

Idaeo

Superstar
Supporter
Joined
Jan 10, 2013
Messages
7,041
Reputation
3,689
Daps
34,180
Reppin
DC
His obituary reads like an African American history textbook...this man was the epitome of Black Excellence

He also joined the Mobile chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. After Alabama outlawed the organization in 1955, he helped form an independent group, the Alabama Civil Affairs Association, and became its president. After a one-day boycott of Mobile buses, the group was able to get rid of the rule that black Americans must give up seats to white passengers, although they still had to board at the back of the bus.

Mr. Lowery then joined Dr. King and two other Alabama ministers, Ralph Abernathy and Fred Shuttlesworth, in leading the bus boycott in Montgomery.

Mr. Lowery figured in a momentous Supreme Court decision in 1964, The New York Times Company v. Sullivan. He was one of four black ministers mentioned in an advertisement published by The Times soliciting donations to help defend Dr. King against a perjury indictment in Alabama.


L.B. Sullivan, a commissioner of Montgomery County, Ala., and others contended that they had been libeled by the ad, and an Alabama state court agreed, levying a $500,000 judgment against The Times and the ministers. Mr. Lowery’s car and other personal property were seized.

But in a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court reversed the state court’s ruling, saying that the statements in the ad had not been made with deliberate malice and that malice was necessary to prove libel against public officials. The ruling allowed the press to report more freely about civil rights and other subjects without fear of legal action.

For years, Mr. Lowery faced danger as he continued the civil rights struggle across the South and beyond. Only his sudden decision to take a train home from Nashville saved him from a bomb that detonated in his Birmingham motel room in 1963.

In 1979, he defied a Klan death threat and marched for leniency for a mentally disabled black man who was accused of raping two white women in Decatur, Ala. Bullets buzzed over his head.
Click to expand...

Some criticized his prayer at Mr. Obama’s inauguration, which borrowed from the Big Bill Broonzy song “Black, Brown and White Blues.”


“Help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back,” he said, “when brown can stick around; when yellow will be mellow; when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right.”


Mr. Obama, who had bowed his head, broke into a broad smile. Later that year, he awarded Mr. Lowery the Presidential Medal of Freedom.:obama:
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top