Every year it seems, Joseph Lowery’s birthday is marked with serious programming that gets at the heart of his life as a man of God and civil rights leader.
This year, as he approaches 98, he just wants to party.
“He is getting sentimental in his 98th year,” said Lowery’s daughter, Cheryl Lowery. “He wants to spend time and love on the people who have meant so much to the movement and to him and he wants an opportunity for the people of the community of faith and social justice to come together. But make no mistake, this is going to be a party, with music.”
Lowery, who made his mark in the 1950s and 1960s as a key civil rights leader at the shoulder of Martin Luther King Jr., before serving the longest tenure in history as the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, turns 98 on Sunday.
On Oct. 10, his family and the Joseph and Evelyn Lowery Institute for Justice & Human Rights will throw a party for him at 6:30 p.m. at the Georgia Railroad Freight Depot in downtown Atlanta.
Melissa Ruggieri
Melissa Ruggieri
For close to a century, Lowery has worked with and helped a lot of people.
Aside from his work in civil rights, he was also a force in the pulpit, serving as pastor for Central United Methodist Church before transferring to Cascade United Methodist. He retired from Cascade at the age of 70 in 1992.
In 2008, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama tapped Lowery as his national co-chair for voter registration. After the election, President Obama picked Lowery to deliver the benediction at his 2009 inauguration.
A few months later, Obama gave Lowery the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the nation.
Cheryl Lowery said the theme of the party is “Celebrating the Work and the Man.”
The proceeds will support programming at the Lowery Institute, which was established in 2001 on Lowery’s 80th birthday to sustain his commitment to non-violence advocacy and social justice.
This year, 77 “change agents,” from five metro Atlanta colleges, participated in Lowery Institute programs, including a lecture series, entrepreneurial training, a podcast and collecting and distributing food.
Rhythm and Blues singer Regina Belle, and BET’s “Sunday Best” winner, Y’Anna Crawley, are set to perform at the party.
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