Joseph Lowery, (born October 6, 1921, in Huntsville, Alabama) is a leader in the American civil rights movement.
Lowery was pastor of the Warren Street United Methodist Church, in Mobile, Alabama from 1952 until 1961. After Rosa Parks' arrest in 1955, Lowery helped lead the Montgomery bus boycott. His property was seized in 1959 along with that of other civil rights leaders by the State of Alabama as part of a libel suit. In 1957, with Martin Luther King, Jr. Lowery founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and subsequently led the organization as its president from 1977 to 1997.
The US Supreme Court ordered the suit reversed. At the request of Martin Luther King Jr., Lowery led the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965. Lowery served as pastor of Cascade United Methodist Church in Atlanta from (1986-92). He is now retired but remains active in the civil rights movement.
In 2006 at Coretta Scott King's funeral, Dr. Lowery received a standing ovation when he remarked before four presidents in attendance: “We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew and we know that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor.” Others have commented that by abusing the grand opportunity to comment on the great life of Coretta King, he demeaned himself and Mrs. King but bringing into his speech a classless political attack.
To honor Reverend Lowery, the City of Atlanta renamed Ashby Street in his honor.
