Lowery to deliver benediction at Obama’s inaugural

An Atlanta civil rights icon will play a very visible role in the historic and star-studded inauguration of Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president.

A congressional committee announced late Wednesday that the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, a stalwart of the civil rights movement and co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, will deliver the benediction.

Rev. Joseph Lowery

Joseph Echols Lowery

Born Oct. 6, 1921, in Huntsville, Ala.

His great-grandfather, the Rev. Green Echols, was the first black pastor of Lakeside Methodist Church in Huntsville. His mother would drag him to church and make him sing and make speeches before the congregation but the young Lowery resisted the urge to preach.

He has been married to Evelyn since April 5, 1948. They have three daughters, Yvonne, Karen and Cheryl. Lowery has two adult sons, Joseph Jr. and LeRoy II, from a former marriage.

1948: Begins pastorate in Birmingham.

1957: Helps found SCLC with the Revs. Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy and Fred Shuttlesworth. Lowery is vice president of SCLC from 1956-67. Elected Chairman in 1967. He served as SCLC president from 1977-98, longer than King and Abernathy combined.

In 1960, the Montgomery police commissioner sues him and three other ministers for libel over a New York Times ad that seeks to raise funds for King's defense against felony charges related to his 1956 and 1958 Alabama tax returns. An all-white jury initially orders the ministers to pay $500,000. Lowery's car is seized and sold at public auction. Four years later the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the libel verdict.

1961: Appointed assistant to bishop of Nashville and helps to lead efforts to desegregate local hotels and restaurants.

In 1965, King names Lowery to deliver the demands of a planned Selma-to-Montgomery march for voting rights to then-Alabama Gov. George Wallace. In 1995, Wallace apologizes to Lowery for his actions as Lowery leads the 30th Anniversary reenactment.

1968: Appointed pastor of Central United Methodist Church, Atlanta; leads church in building a 240-unit low- and moderate-income housing development.

1982: Leads national effort to extend federal Voting Rights Act.

1986: Transferred from Central to Cascade United Methodist Church, Atlanta. He retires in 1992 after drawing nearly 2,000 new members to the church.

Twice named one of the 15 greatest black preachers by Ebony magazine and dubbed the Dean of the Civil Rights Movement by the NAACP in 1997.

In 1994, Lowery leases space to Evelyn, his wife and founder of SCLC/W.O.M.E.N, for $1 a year. Later, the SCLC board sues the Lowerys, claiming Lowery violated his responsibility to the SCLC and accusing Evelyn of using the SCLC name for fund-raising purposes without gaining approval. The suit is dropped in 2005.

In 2006, at Coretta Scott King's funeral, Lowery blasts President George W. Bush over the war in Iraq - with the president sitting a few feet behind him.

During services for Rosa Parks in 2005, Lowery corners Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to solicit her help with efforts to extend the Voting Rights Act. Lowery later jokes that he'd approached her there "because I knew she could not move."

Lowery has survived prostate cancer and throat surgery.

--Joni Zeccola

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Lowery, retired pastor of Atlanta’s Cascade United Methodist Church, said Obama called him a few weeks ago and said he wanted him to take part in the Jan. 20 ceremony but hadn’t decided exactly what role he would play. Obama said he’d get back to Lowery.

“I guess this is his way of getting back to me,” Lowery said Wednesday afternoon as he fielded dozens of reporters’ calls at his southwest Atlanta home. “I’m grateful to the president-elect for picking a small-town preacher like me to be on the program of such a historic inauguration. I’m humbled.”

The civil rights leader will join other celebrities of the entertainment and religious communities. They include singer Aretha Franklin, Rick Warren, the evangelical minister of the Saddleback Church in California, and Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet Elizabeth Alexander.

“I am very pleased that a minister like Rev. Joseph Lowery will play a powerful role in this inauguration,” U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) said through a spokeswoman.

Lowery, an 87-year-old native of Hunstville, Ala., campaigned tirelessly for Obama in Mississippi, Iowa, Alabama and other states and served as chief of Obama’s voting rights committee. After the inauguration, Lowery plans no official role in the Obama White House.

“We have not had any discussions,” Lowery said. “I’m retired.”

As he marched for civil rights equality alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s, Lowery said, he prayed the country would one day elect a black president, “but I never thought I’d live to see it.”

Lowery said he hopes Obama can unite a country divided over war and embroiled in a recession.

“He’s been touched by the hand of God to lead this nation and, indeed, lead the world through leading this nation to an era of peace and abundant life,” Lowery said. To be a part of it, “I’m honored and overjoyed, [I’m] looking forward to it with great anticipation.”

Lowery’s last speech on the public stage was when he spoke before four presidents at the 2006 funeral of Coretta Scott King.

Lowery said he hasn’t thought about what he’ll say on inauguration day.

When will he write his benediction?

“Probably the night before,” he said. “That’s the way I always do it.”

The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies announced the program for the 10 a.m. service to be held on the west side of the U.S. Capitol. Warren, author of “The Purpose Driven Life,” will deliver the invocation. Franklin will perform “Someday We’ll All Be Free.”

Violinist Itzhak Perlman, pianist Gabriela Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill will join cellist Yo-Yo Ma for a new work composed by John Williams.

Alexander, a poet from Yale University, will read a poem, followed by Lowery’s benediction.

Supreme Court Justice Paul Stevens will administer the oath of office to Vice President-elect Joe Biden.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts will administer the oath of office to President-elect Obama.

—Staff writer Marcus Garner contributed to this article.