The Rev. Joseph Lowery to Speak at Duke's MLK Program
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
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The Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, a founding member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, will give the keynote address for Duke University’s Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 18, 2009, in Duke Chapel.
The speech is part of a program in the chapel celebrating King’s life. The program, which will include music and dance, is free and open to the public; parking is available in the Bryan Center Parking Garage (see map).
Lowery and King were part of the group that founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in Atlanta in 1957. Lowery was an active partner with King throughout the Civil Rights Movement, leading marches and sit-ins against segregation. He pastored churches in Mobile, Memphis, Birmingham and Atlanta.
Lowery served as president of the SCLC from 1977 to 1998. He also has been active in such causes as Middle East peace, ending apartheid in South Africa and cleaning up toxic waste in North Carolina.
A retired United Methodist minister, Lowery has won numerous awards, including the NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award, Martin Luther King Center Peace Award and United Methodist Church Justice Award. The Joseph E. Lowery Institute for Justice & Human Rights at Clark-Atlanta University is named in his honor. He spoke at King’s memorial service, and gave eulogies at the funerals of Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King.
“Dr. Lowery and Dr. King were partners in laying the foundation for the changes that we now see occurring in America’s public life,” said Ben Reese, one of the King committee co-chairs and Duke’s vice president for institutional equity. “His appearance here will give the Duke community an opportunity to reflect on that foundation and inspiration to build upon the principles and tenets of Dr. King.”
“Close by the side of Martin King were women and men of unwavering courage and spiritual fortitude, including Dr. Joseph Lowery,” said William C. Turner Jr., the other co-chair of the King committee and an associate professor of the practice of homiletics in Duke’s Divinity School. “With the challenges and opportunities of our day, we need, as never before, to hear from the wise ones who still remain among us.”
The theme for this year’s King commemoration events is “What Becomes of the Dream? Faith and Politics, Vision and Leadership.”
Learn more about this year’s commemoration, including an updated listing of events, at http://mlk.duke.edu.
