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“IN RECOGNITION OF REV. DR. JOSEPH E. LOWERY ON THE EVE OF THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1282-E1283 on June 25, 2004.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
IN RECOGNITION OF REV. DR. JOSEPH E. LOWERY ON THE EVE OF THE 40TH
ANNIVERSARY OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
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HON. JULIA CARSON
of indiana
in the house of representatives
Friday, June 25, 2004
Ms. CARSON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, on the 40th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, now is an especially appropriate time to acknowledge and commend the historic contributions of a great civil rights fighter, The Reverend Doctor Joseph E. Lowery.
Dr. Lowery is the Co-founder, President Emeritus, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Chairman Emeritus, Black Leadership Forum, Inc. and Convener of the Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda (GEPA).
As co-founder with Martin Luther King, Jr., of the SCLC in 1957; Dr. Lowery served as vice president (1957-67); chairman of the board (1967-
77); and as president and chief executive officer from Feb. 1977-Jan. 15, 1998. Dr. King named him chairman of the delegation to take demands of the Selma-to-Montgomery March (1965) to Gov. George Wallace. Wallace had ordered the marchers beaten (``Bloody Sunday'') but apologized to Lowery in 1995 as he led the 30th anniversary re-enactment of the historic march, which led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
His genesis as a civil rights advocate was in the early `50s in Mobile, AL where he headed the Alabama Civic Affairs Association, which led the movement for the desegregation of buses and public accommodations. While in Mobile, his property was seized by the Alabama courts in an historic libel suit: Sullivan v. NYTimes, Abernathy, Lowery, Shuttlesworth, & Seay. The U.S. Supreme Court vindicated the ministers in a landmark ruling on libel (Read Make No Law by Anthony Lewis, 1964)
Lowery led the historic Alabama to Washington pilgrimage (1982) to free Maggie Bozeman and Julia Wilder, falsely convicted of voter fraud. This march helped gain the extension of provisions of the Voting Rights Act to 2007. Nationally recognized as a strong proponent of affirmative action, he also led the movement in Nashville to desegregate public accommodations. In Birmingham, he served as president of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, which spearheaded the hiring of Birmingham's first black police officers, etc. As a United Methodist minister, he was elected as delegate to three General Conferences, and presided over an Annual Conference (acting bishop in 1966.
He is co-founder and chairman emeritus of the Black leadership Forum, a consortium of national black advocacy organizations, and served as third president following Vernon Jordan and Benjamin Hooks. As president of SCLC, he negotiated covenants with major corporations for employment advances and business contracts with minority companies. One of the first protest campaigns he led was against the Atlanta based Southern Company for contracting to purchase ten million tons of coal from South Africa
(12977). He was among the first five persons arrested at the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C. in the ``Free South Africa'' campaign (1984). He co-chaired the 1990 Nelson Mandela visit to Atlanta following his release from prison and awarded Mandela the SCLC/Martin Luther King, Jr. Human Rights Award. He was keynote speaker at the African Renaissance Dinner in Durban in 1998 honoring Mandela's retirement. He was invited to keynote the dedication of a school and hospital in East Germany honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. He led a peace delegation to the Middle East and met with the president of Lebanon and Yassir Arafat to seek justice in the Middle East by non-
violent means. He led protests against the dumping of toxic waste in Warrenton County, N.C., and was arrested twice in this campaign which gave birth to the environmental justice movement.
He served on the board of directors of MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) for 23 years and was chairman for three years
(during the '96 Olympics), and was instrumental in securing millions in contracts for minority businesses. Since retiring from the pulpit in 1997 and SCLC in January 1998, he has helped black farmers secure a federal court decree valued at $2 billion against the Department of Agriculture for discrimination. He assisted black auto dealers to seek redress from discrimination claims against auto manufacturers. He has supported black concert promoters in their fight against exclusionary policies of talent agencies. As convener of the Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda (CPA), he is active in election reform and voter empowerment, economic justice, criminal justice reform, including alternative sentencing and a moratorium on the death penalty.
He is married to Evelyn Gibson Lowery, an activist in her own right, founder of SCLC/WOMEN and is the father of five children.
Lowery has received numerous awards, including an NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award and the Martin Luther King Center Peace Award. Essence has twice named him as one of the Fifteen Greatest Black Preachers. Lowery is married to Evelyn Gibson Lowery, an activist in her own right.
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