A Living Legend…The Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery

TH:  Tell us about your experience as it relates to the civil rights

JL: I never considered myself going into the civil rights movement.  I was going into my ministry.

And ministry is a holistic approach to life.  I think the Gospel speaks to the totality of life – the social, political, economic, business, educational, personal, public, everything.

God looks at the totality of life.  So I saw my ministry as not only trying to help make heaven their home but to make their homes here heaven.  And that took in what I call Civil Rights.  It took in every aspect of living and every aspect of life.  So I never distinguish between Civil Rights and the work of the church.  It is all related to “what thus saith the Lord”.

TH: What was your experience with Dr. King?

JL:  I wish I could put adequately into words a description of what a marvelous and powerful personality Martin Luther King was.  He was one of a kind.  It was so tragic that he was taken from us at such an early age.  He used to say to me that he wouldn’t make 40 and I would say to him, come on now you’ll live to be an old man.  Your beard is gonna drag the ground but he died at 39. But it never deterred him from his work.  He never took any shortcuts.  He didn’t abbreviate his ministry in any shape or form because he was in danger and he knew he was in danger.  He knew he was being stocked.  He knew his life was threatened.  But it never made him shortcut his ministry nor compromise his position on critical issues.  He loved people.  He enjoyed his work.  He was at home with kings he was at home with a small town preacher like me.  Really one of the great experiences of my life was being a friend and colleague of Martin Luther King Jr.

TH:  What was the recent dedication ceremony for Martin Luther King Jr. like for you?

JL:  It was tremendous!  We completed a task.  It is a marvelous experience and a marvelous project.  Someone said Martin was about  5’ 8” and that statue is about 30 feet so he is a big man now!  It is a marvelous tribute to Dr. King, to the movement and to the country because it recognizes the fact that the country   accepts the fact that Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the fathers of this country. He’s on that mall with the other fathers.  It’s marvelous that he’s there because he helped America find a new birth.  He helped America become a new nation, entering into a new era of brotherhood and fellowship and justice.  And that is what makes you a father of this nation.  He belongs on that mall.  And although he was just dedicated the mall knew he was there.  The whispering grass told the trees and the trees told the birds and the bees and they told the babbling brook there is a new kid on this block! And he’s a king!  There has never been that kind of excitement with anyone placed on that mall.  It is historic.  It not only points out blessings of the past it points out the challenges and opportunities of the future.  Its history but it’s also the future.  America will be reminded for generations to come, not only of what Martin Luther King Jr. and the movement meant but what it still means.  Though we have come a long, long way we still have a long way to go.  As Robert Frost said, “We have miles and miles to go before we sleep.”

TH:  Dr. Lowery in your time you have seen the election of an African American president come to pass. You’ve seen this incredible 30 foot monument built and erected in Washington. We’ve seen such an incredible icon, you turn 90.  What does this all mean to you?

JL:  Well I wish I knew.  I’m trying to discover what it all means.  It’s thrilling as I said earlier.  If I had known it was so much fun I would have turned 90 sooner.  People have been so loving and so warm and embracing me in so many perspectives.  I don’t know what to think. I don’t deserve it but I’m not giving it back.  Like I told President Obama when he gave me the Freedom Medal, I thank you, I don’t deserve it but you are not going to get it back. It was a wonderful experience.  I think that we all have to thank God.  When we got the Voting Rights Act Bill passed in 1965 we talked about the election of a black president.  We said this will open up new vessels of opportunity.  But none of us will be able to see a Black president.  One or two of us may have said you can never tell it but it will be a few years.  Obviously I never thought I’d live to see it.  And not only did God allow me to live to see it He allowed me to participate in it.  So I am overjoyed.  If God took me home right now He wouldn’t owe me anything.  My blessings have been abundant and enormous and marvelous.  And I am thankful for everything the Lord has done.

TH:  What victory of the movement do you feel impacted your life the most?

JL:  I guess the single event of movement that impacted the country most was the voting rights act.  There would be no black president.  No black congressmen, no black mayors or elected officials.  When martin died there were only a few hundred.  So we’ve come a long, long way and I think that Voting Rights Act is the most significant piece of legislation in our lifetime.  That doesn’t mean that the only thing that excited me.  I almost died in Decatur, Alabama in 1979.  That was when the movement was supposed to have been over.  We were there to defend a young man named Tommy Lee Hines who was accused of rape and was being railroaded.  We marched to protest the way they were treating him and we were attacked by the Klu Klux Klan.  3 young people were shot in the head.  Thank God they didn’t die.  I wouldn’t let my wife march with me as she usually did because we had heard from the news people that the Klan had planned to kill people. So she drove behind us and when the Klan did attack us they shot in the car right through the windshield.  Thank God she fell on the seat and was able to escape.  That was a memorable event.

There were so many memorable events – the inauguration of Barack Obama.  And my getting to give the benediction was a memorable event.  No way to overlook that.  There have been so many wonderful experiences.  Like I said if He took me right now I would have no complaints.

TH:  Dr. Lowery, your love for Christ is very apparent.  Share with us how you maintain your faith during difficult situations and challenges?

JL:  Let me turn that around, it was faith that sustained me in the movement and in all of my ministry.  I always had a sense of calling.  I wouldn’t have had the courage or the nerve to stand up there and say to people you listen to me if I had not felt that God had called me to do it. And that He would sustain and inspire me.  He filled my mouth with words.  I have had a sense of God’s calling.  I felt I was in partnership with God and that gave me courage and that gave me strength.  And many times when you get discouraged and down you just remember that you are not alone.  It was my faith in a loving God that sustained me.  Without that faith I would have fallen by the wayside long time ago.

TH:  What message do you have for our youth today?

JL:  I would hope that we’ve made progress academically.  We have college presidents. We have more of our young people going to college than we’ve had before, not enough but we still have a large number.  We have many more young men going to college.  So we’ve made progress in many areas but the one area where we are lagging is in the spiritual arena.  We’ve got to catch up with the intellectual and literary and even the economic progress with our spiritual achievement. We’ve got to learn to love each other.  We’ve come a long way and we’ve learned to tolerate each other but we’ve not learned to love each other.  Our tolerance comes by law.  You can’t separate and you can’t deny us participation in certain areas of life.  But that’s not the same as love.  And we’ve got to find a way to understand that God made us one family and it’s silly of us to have the kind of divisiveness that characterizes the human experience today.  God doesn’t care about our color.  There are geographical, ecological factors that may affect our skin color but if you pull away that veneer of skin we’d all be just alike – ugly, fierce.  We are all God’s children.  We’ve got to learn that it’s so foolish of us. We’ve got to learn to choose leaders in our country who offer programs and policies that turn us to each other and not on each other.  I am thankful for the leadership that President Obama has given.  He has utilized all of his resources and all of his strengths which are considerable to help us turn to each other as a nation, as a people.   I think people are going to recognize it.  I think that before this election people will not turn this country over to people who want to divide us.  Who want to turn us on each other.  I think the best thing President Obama has going for him is those fellows I saw lined up at that last debate.  The Republican candidates are the best argument for Mr. Obama that I’ve seen, including Herman Cain. He’s having a ball but he’s not serving the cause of democracy or the cause of good human relations.  He has bought into the divisiveness.  The serving the big dog at the expense of the little dog and that’s unfortunate.

TH:  As it relates to our youth, what’s going on with the Joseph E. Lowery Institute?

JL:  Well you know we’ve been slow getting off the ground because we live at Clark College and then it was Clark Atlanta that helped found us.  It was Carl Ware who was Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Clark and Dr. Thomas Cole was President at the time back in 2001.  They decided to found or establish the institute.  It has taken us all those years to get situated but I think now we are getting it off.  Just recently my youngest daughter, Cheryl Lowery Osborne, resigned from her previous position.  She was running an office for her husband who is a physician and resigned to take over the institute.  The birthday celebration was her first major project and she did a beautiful job. It filled up and they sold out.  It was a beautiful program and I said to the symphony that I thought they ought to pay us instead of us paying them for the privilege of accompanying The Five Blind Boys of Alabama.  I thought that was a tremendous achievement for the symphony.  But wasn’t that a marvelous expression of brotherhood? And coming together. To see the sophisticated erudite Atlanta Symphony accompanying The Five Blind Boys of Alabama.  And listen that Sunday after the program we ended up eating together.  We were supposed to go to the White House but the lines were long and we were tired.  We ended up going over to the International House of Prayer and had dinner in the church where they serve dinner.  And guess who we ran into, The Five Blind Boys.  They were having dinner.  They were getting some chicken and I had chicken too.  They said how much they enjoyed the experience and that any time that we needed them to call them.  And I am going to call them. I really enjoyed their numbers.  I wanted them to do more than one number. It was a marvelous experience and a marvelous gesture of good will for everybody.  And that symphony orchestra stayed there during the whole time.  They were supposed to leave early but they decided to stay and did not charge for overtime.  They enjoyed being there.  Enjoyed playing for Tramaine Hawkins, Peobo Bryson, The Five Blind Boys and Stevie Wonder.   All of them were jubilant.  It was a tremendous experience.  It was an honor to the movement and to what the movement was about.

TH: Dr. If you would, would you close us in a prayer for our nation, a prayer for our young people, a prayer that will include all those who are struggling and losing their homes…

JL: Let us pray – God of our weary years, God of our silent tears.  Though who has brought us thus far along the way though who has by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path we pray. Lord we thank you for our blessings and thank you for this opportunity to send a message of prayer and love and faith through the magazine and through photographs and through our own witness as your children.  I pray for the young people who hear my voice.  Our young people are our smartest yet generation and the most promising generation and we need Lord to throw our arms around them and keep them in the fold of faith. And not let them waste themselves in unrighteous living and drugs and other things and violence but to turn to each other as your children and to understand that we are your children. Be with us Lord in the days ahead. This nation unto thee can help the whole world as the world looks to America for these issues. So let this nation let it’s light shine and let the glory of God shine through us and let us all let God work through us as we love each other. And as we look forward to that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow can be mellow, when the red man can get ahead man and when white will embrace what is right. That’s the world we know you want us to have and we thank you for leading us to it.  In Jesus’ name. Amen.