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Southern Christian Leadership Conference records [bulk 1968-2003] > Office of the President records > President Joseph E. Lowery files

Biographical Note

Joseph E. Lowery was born in Huntsville, Alabama, on October 6, 1924. Lowery graduated from seminary in 1950 and was ordained as a Methodist minister. The same year, he married Evelyn Gibson. Lowery was a young pastor in Mobile, Alabama, during the bus boycotts of the 1950s, and a founding member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957. He was active in the movement throughout the 1960s, marching alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. He also was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the SCLC through much of the 1960s and 1970s. In 1977, following the resignation of Ralph David Abernathy, Lowery assumed the presidency of SCLC, a position he held until 1997.

Under his leadership, SCLC continued to employ the use of nonviolent direct action to achieve greater equality. The organization focused on securing economic justice for the poor and voting rights for the disenfranchised, but also took on more international interests. In 1979, Lowery and several other civil rights leaders, including Andrew Young, met with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) to discuss peace in the Middle East. The meeting caused great controversy and ultimately led to Young's resignation as United States Ambassador to the United Nations. In the 1980s, SCLC also became deeply involved in the fight to end Apartheid in South Africa. In 1985, objecting to the sale of South African products in Winn-Dixie grocery stores, Lowery led a boycott of the chain that ultimately ended in the store pulling all South African products from their shelves.

Lowery was also minister of Central United Methodist Church and Cascade United Methodist Church, both in Atlanta. He retired from the ministry in 1992.

Scope and Content Note

The subseries consists of records from the presidency of Joseph E. Lowery, including correspondence, administrative records, speeches, statements and other writings, and subject files. Correspondence for many years is incomplete. Of particular note, however, is correspondence from 1979, which contains many letters in response to Lowery's meeting with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).

The administrative records detail day to day operations in the national office, especially efforts in the area of economic development. Files for the Development Corporation Baton Rouge-SCLC, Inc. chronicle the construction and management of low income housing for the elderly in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Also of note are files relating to other major SCLC programs, including the Alabama Tri-County Project, a grant funded project to alleviate poverty in three rural Alabama counties. Also documented are programs such as the Poor People's Crusade, Wings of Hope Anti-drug Program, the economic covenant with Shoney's, and the boycott of Winn-Dixie grocery stores, in addition to various marches and rallies sponsored by SCLC throughout the 1980s.

Subject files contain materials relating to other organizations and interests not directly concerned with the daily operation of SCLC. These files document Lowery's service on the board of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change and other organizations, his interest and involvement in the legal case of Reverend Sun Myung Moon, as well as his efforts in other legal cases. Many subject files contain correspondence.

Arrangement Note

Arranged by record type, then in chronological or alphabetical order.