Lowery sees King’s dream in Obama
Civil rights leader says election realizes King's hope to move nation beyond color
By Laurel Mylonas-Orwig
CHICAGO — Just days before he would say a benediction over the inauguration of President Barack Obama, civil rights icon Rev. Joseph Lowery told a University of Chicago crowd that he was still struggling with the historic shift represented by the event.
“I still don’t believe it,” Lowery said of Obama’s victory, shaking his head. “And, standing on the Capitol steps, I still might not believe it, but I will shout, ‘Glory, Hallelujah!’”
Lowery was the keynote speaker last Thursday at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel during the University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Service. And as he celebrated the legacy of the contemporary he knew simply as “Martin,” he also spoke about the significance of Obama’s victory to a crowd of more than 200 who braved arctic temperatures for the occasion.
“I see the inauguration as the nation’s response to Martin’s call to move beyond color, for we have moved beyond color in this election,” Lowery said.
It is a response that Lowery has been hoping for since he began supporting Obama more than two years ago, after hearing him speak at a voting rights rally in Alabama.
A veteran of the civil rights movement whose accomplishments are nearly unparalleled, Lowery has a unique perspective. When the gospel choir Soul Umoja sang “Oh Freedom” before his speech Thursday, Lowery nodded as he listened, mouthing the words: “…and before I’d be a slave/I’d be buried in my grave/and go home to my Lord and be free.”
Afterward, Lowery spoke of marching into the face of police armed with fire hoses, of facing jail and lawsuits, and of being denied service in a diner, contrasting that with the election of the nation’s first African American president.
Yet for Lowery, Obama’s election represents more than a change in the racial temperature of America. It represents a chance for the continuance of the social changes for which he has worked his whole life. In 1957, Lowery co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with King. Hailed as “the dean of the civil rights movement,” Lowery has dedicated his life to the advancement of the cause.
During a brief interview at the reception following his speech, Lowery elaborated on his reasons for supporting a man who was just a little-known Illinois senator when Lowery first met him.
“Oh, it was many things. He had a reverence for the past that impressed me, and a true vision for the future,” Lowery reflected. “He is especially prepared.”
Pausing to take a sip of his tea, Lowery considered the question further before offering the final thoughts of a man who has seen more than most.
“Barack Obama was chosen for this moment in history.”
