Rev. Lowery roasted by civil rights comrades

Errin Haines

ATLANTA — To help him celebrate his 85th birthday, the Rev. Joseph Lowery invited two friends who share his quick wit, sharp tongue and tendency to create controversy.

First was Harry Belafonte, the actor, singer and activist who has criticized the Bush administration on the war in Iraq and the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina. Belafonte quipped he was surprised to see such a crowd lined up to pay tribute to Lowery, whose birthday was Oct. 6.

“I didn’t know Joe Lowery had that many people fooled,” Belafonte said.

Comedian and activist Dick Gregory, who celebrated his 74th birthday on Oct. 12, got a slap on the back from Lowery after his remarks — more standup comedy than salute. He began by apologizing for being late, which he blamed on mixing up his nutritional supplements with the sexual enhancement drug Viagra.

Belafonte and Gregory also heaped praise on Lowery and his wife, Evelyn Gibson Lowery, at the civil rights icon’s birthday roast and fundraiser last Thursday night.

“They made it look so easy, because they have caught hell in their lives,” Gregory said. “You can’t look at them and tell what they went through.”

Some speakers poked fun at themselves as well.

“I’m sorry to be a little late, but as they announced, white folks are always late,” said former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, the lone white person to speak at the event.

Lowery at times stole the show. When Democratic state Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan asked everyone in the auditorium under 40 to stand and thank him for his lifelong struggle, Lowery stood, too.

Proceeds from the evening benefited the Joseph E. Lowery Institute for Justice and Human Rights at Clark Atlanta University. Among those filling the Martin Luther King Jr. Chapel at Morehouse College were politicians, clergy and community members.

Many roasters also recognized Evelyn Gibson Lowery for standing alongside her husband for half a century to fight social injustice and for her own work as head of SCLC/WOMEN, the sister organization of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Lowery co-founded the SCLC with Martin Luther King Jr. and others in 1957 and was its president from 1977 until 1998.

Thanks came not only for Lowery’s contributions during the civil rights movement, but for the work he has done since desegregation. U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., praised his work to fight HIV/AIDS and his continued outspokenness.

“He will say whatever’s on his mind,” Waters said. “That kind of courage is what has kept us in good stead.”

Lowery continues to do so as head of the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, addressing issues such as voting and workers’ rights. Morgan called him the greatest male influence in her life, and asked other young people to continue his fight.

“If you love Joseph E. Lowery, do everything you can to make sure what he did is not in vain,” she said.

(Associated Press)