The National Medical Association (NMA) mourns the loss of the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, a soldier for justice, human and civil rights. Rev. Lowery passed March 27, 2020. Rev. Lowery participated in most of the major activities of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, and continued his civil rights work into the 21st century. He was called the “Dean of the Civil Rights Movement.” Rev. Lowery, born October 6, 1921, worked alongside the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, during the Civil Rights movement of the 60s, co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and served as its 3rd president.
He served as the pastor of Warren Street Methodist Church in Mobile, Alabama and never stopped preaching, even after he retired. He said that injustice in all areas of life including racism, sexism, economic inequality and lack of health care, was in opposition to Christian values. In a 1998 interview, he said he believed “in the final triumph of righteousness.
The NAACP awarded Rev. Lowery their Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. He has also received the Martin Luther King Jr. Center’s Peace Award and the National Urban League’s Whitney M. Young Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award, in 2004. Ebony Magazine named him one of the 15 greatest Black preachers, describing him as “the consummate voice of biblical social relevancy, a focused voice, speaking truth to power.” Lowery also received several honorary doctorates from colleges and universities including Dillard University, Morehouse College, Alabama State University, University of Alabama in Huntsville and Emory University.
Rev. Lowery was able to see the fruits of his labor manifested by the election of the nation’s first Black President, Barack Obama, in November of 2008. In January 2009, he gave the benediction at President Obama’s inauguration and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom later that year. U.S. Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-SC), was quoted as saying, “We have lost a stalwart of the Civil Rights Movement, and I have lost a friend and mentor. His wit and candor inspired my generation to use civil disobedience to move the needle on ‘liberty and justice for all.’ It was his life’s work and his was a life well lived.”
Rev. Lowery is survived by his three daughters. His wife of over 70 years, Evelyn Gibson Lowery, preceded him in death in 2013. No arrangements had been made as of this writing.
The National Medical Association is the collective voice of African American physicians and the leading force for parity and justice in medicine. The NMA is the oldest organization of African American professionals in America representing African American physicians and the patients we serve in the United States and its territories.
