Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery (October 6, 1921 – ) Born in Huntsville, Alabama, the Reverend Lowery attended Knoxville College, Payne College and Theological Seminary, and the Chicago Ecumenical Institute. Lowery earned his doctorate of divinity as well. After many years of civil rights activism in the United States and across Africa, he has since retired from the pulpit (1997) and from his role as founding president and CEO of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1998).

Sourced

• You gotsta love all God's children!
  • Speech honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., January 17, 2005, Clemson University

• We are one.
  • Speech honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., January 17, 2005, Clemson University

• I'd like a hamburger and a coke, please. / Sir, we don't serve negroes here. / Ma'am, I don't eat negroes. I'd like a hamburger and a coke.
  • Conversation was originally at a burger joint in Nashville, TN, but the story was recounted at a Speech honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., January 17, 2005, Clemson University.
• We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right.
  • Benediction at inauguration of US president Barack Obama, January 20, 2009, Washington DC.