The Joseph Echols Lowery and Evelyn Gibson Lowery Collection contributes significantly to the rich archives of materials documenting the long struggle for civil and human rights. Reverend Joseph Lowery is recognized as one of the major leaders of the Civil Rights Movement where he worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others in challenging Jim Crow segregation and racial and economic injustice. His wife, Evelyn Gibson Lowery was an activist in her own right, joining her husband on the front lines of the major campaigns of the civil rights era. The collection, consisting of an estimated 400-linear feet, expands our understanding of the black freedom struggle by providing a close-up view of the remarkable lives and legacy of the Lowerys as they dedicated a lifetime to the struggle for justice and equality. Among the treasured items in the collection are official and personal papers, documents, sermons and speeches, minutes of meetings, correspondence, and a treasure trove of historical photographs.
The collection is archived and curated at the Atlanta University Center (AUC) Robert W. Woodruff Library and owned by Morehouse College. The Lowery Collection enhances the assemblage of civil rights historical materials entrusted to Morehouse College, notably the Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection acquired by the college, in 2009, among other notable manuscript archival collections. Joseph and Evelyn Lowery’s laser focus on civil rights, voting rights, anti-violence initiatives, and economic justice among other issues is evidenced here along with their broader interests and concerns with global freedom movements around the world.
Joseph Echols Lowery
Joseph Echols Lowery was born in Huntsville, Alabama on October 6, 1921 to Dora and LeRroy Lowery; his mother was a teacher and his father owned small businesses. Growing up in the Jim Crow south, Lowery experienced racism first-hand as he faced violent confrontations with the Ku Klux Klan and local police. These experiences impacted Lowery at a young age and served as the basis for his growing social and political consciousness.
After graduating from high school, Joseph Lowery studied at Knoxville College and Alabama A. & M. University. He later earned a B.A. degree, in 1943, from Paine College in Augusta, Georgia. After receiving a degree from Paine Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Divinity degree from Chicago Ecumenical Institute, Lowery was ordained as a Methodist minister. He assumed his first assignment pastoring Warren Street United Methodist Church in Mobile, Alabama. As early civil rights organizing began in the 1950s, Lowery headed the Alabama Civic Affairs Association in Mobile.
Throughout his life, Lowery served as a successful church minister. After leaving Alabama, Reverend Lowery and his family moved to Nashville, Tennessee, then Atlanta, Georgia where he pastored the Central United Methodist Church while working steadily with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. From 1986 until his retirement in 1992, Lowery served as senior pastor of Cascade United Methodist Church.
Evelyn Gibson Lowery
Evelyn Lowery’s parents laid the foundation for her lifelong activism and commitment to social justice. Born in Wichita, Kansas, on February 16, 1925, she was the daughter of Evelyn and Reverend Harry B. Gibson, a Methodist minister who later served as president of the Memphis chapter of the NAACP. Her mother, was deeply involved in community organizations as well.
Following high school, Evelyn Gibson attended Youngstown University and graduated from Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University) in 1946 with a B.A. degree in secondary education. While in college she pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and was the secretary to the Dean of Men.
1950
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Reverend Lowery was among the organizers and supporters of the historic 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, following Rosa Park’s refusal to relinquish her seat to a white man on a local bus. Parks’ action resulted in mobilizing the city around what eventually became a 381-day boycott of the Montgomery Bus Lines. Women were pivotal to the boycott’s success, with the Women’s Political Council’s (WPC) strategic mobilization and organization of the local community. The Montgomery boycott sparked many subsequent nonviolent challenges to racial segregation across the south.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
Operation Breadbasket and the Movement North
Operation Breadbasket was established, in Atlanta, in 1962, to target discrimination in hiring and poor treatment of African Americans by companies doing business in black communities. Operation Breadbasket drew on the unified power of SCLC’s ministers to apply pressure to grocery store chains and other businesses in the soft drink and dairy industries to create jobs and invest in the communities from which they drew profits.
By 1966, Operation Breadbasket expanded to Chicago as part of SCLC’s focus on civil rights in the north. The Chicago Campaign included demonstrations and protests against segregation in housing, education, and employment.
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
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Selma to Montgomery March and the Struggle for Voting Rights
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1960
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1970
SCLC/W.O.M.E.N.
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Anti-Apartheid Activism
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HIV/Aids Education
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The Civil Rights Heritage Tour
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2000
Presidential Medal of Freedom
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2010
The Legacy Continues
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