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Ralph Abernathy Dies at 64 Ralph Abernathy Dies at 64 Civil Rights Leader Was Top King Aide CI( last grand dream, a Poor People's By Bart Barnes Washington Post Stall Writer Campaign in Washington to sensi- 'illq tize the federal government and the The Rev. Ralph David Aber- nation to the plight of the poor in nathy, 64, the top aide and alter ego America. It became an encampment to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. of up to 2,600 protesters in a tent during the civil rights struggles of and shanty town near the Lincoln the 1950s and 1960s and King's Memorial. On June 24, 1968, the successor as president of the South- encampment was cleared out by ern Christian Leadership Confer- D.C. riot police after six weeks of ence after his 1968 assassination, controversy and disorder in a cap- died yesterday at a hospital in At- ital city that was already racially lanta after a heart attack. He had tense and on edge in the aftermath been hospitalized since last month of the riots that followed King's for a sodium deficiency and had suf- Turder. fered strokes in 1983 and 1986. Absent from the public spotlight Abernathy's first major task fol- for much of the 1970s and 1980s, 1971 PHOTO lowing King's assassination was the Abernathy provoked a major news Ralph Abernathy, shown at a D.C. organization and direction of King's See ABERNATHY, A6, Col 1 rally, led the Poor People's Campaign. ABERNATHY, From Al I have told no lies. I have written the as president of the Southern Christian truth and nothing but the truth," declared Leadership Conference in 1973, complain- 'story last year with discussions in his au- Abernathy. "I'm not Judas," he said when ing that King's widow, Coretta Scott King, ▪tobiography, "And The Walls Came Turn- handed a telegram warning that including and the Martin Luther King Jr, Center for - bling Down," of King's alleged extramarital the material about King's extramarital af- Nonviolent Social Change that she headed, --affairs on the night before he died in Mem- fairs in his autobiography could "rob you of were draining money and support that 4his. Black leaders, including Jesse L. Jack- your place in history." might otherwise have gone to the SCLC. son, former Atlanta mayor Andrew J. Although he remained at King's side dur- "His total life and passion. was his support Young, Del. Walter E. Fauntroy (D-D.C.), ing the early struggles of the civil rights of Martin Luther King," said Young, anoth- Rep. William H. Gray III (D-Pa.), NAACP movement and went to jail with him 17 er key aide to King in the early years of the Executive Director Benjamin L. Hooks and times, Abernathy insisted he had never civil rights movement. If Abernathy had a Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), accused him of wanted to replace King. "I always wanted to weakness, Young said, "it was trying to fill betraying his friend and the civil rights stand with him and' not ahead of him . I Martin Luther King Jr.'s shoes after his cause by including the material. never had any desire to lead the move- death, and that was an impossible task." Juan Williams, a Washington Post report- ment," he said. It was as a graduate student in sociology er who reviewed the book in this newspa- His style of oratory was plain, full of sim- in Atlanta that Abernathy first met King, at per, called it "a very human, realistic look at ple words and humor, but it lacked the cha- the Ebenezer Baptist Church where King's • Abernathy and King. All childish deification risma and eloquence of King's oratory, and father was pastor. • of King is dismissed here by his best and as a leader Abernathy did not have the per- The two men later became professional closest friend." sonal magnetism that King did. He resigned colleagues in Montgomery, Ala. Abernathy was named pastor of First Baptist Church His house was badly damaged, but his wife there in 1951, and King was appointed pas- and baby daughter escaped unharmed. The tor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in church was destroyed and had to be rebuilt. Montgomery three years later. Over the next decade, the SCLC would After the arrest in Montgomery on Dec. become a major force for civil rights 1, 1955, of a black seamstress, Rosa Parks, throughout the South. Abernathy and King for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a would be jailed in cities from Selma, Ala., to white passenger, Abernathy and King or- Albany, Ga., for civil rights activities rang- ganized a bus boycott that lasted just over a ing from protest sit-ins to voter registration year and ended with the desegregation of drives. Montgomery buses. "Whenever Dr. King and I would go to jail In 1957, the two men met with black together we would spend the first 24 hours leaders from 10 southern states in Atlanta fasting to purify our souls in order that we to organize the Southern Christian Lead- would have no hatred in our hearts toward ership Conference. King was elected pres- the jailer, and a stronger determination to ident of the organization, and Abernathy tear down the system responsible," Aber- became secretary-treasurer. nathy once recalled. While Abernathy was attending the or- In 1963 he participated in the March on ganizational meeting in Atlanta, his home Washington that attracted an estimated and church in Montgomery were bombed. See ABERNATHY, A7, CoL 3 ABERNATHY, From A6 200,000 people and is probably best re- membered for King's "I Have a Dream" speech. In subsequent years, the SCLC leadership began to focus increasingly on jobs and income, and in December of 1967 King developed his idea for the Poor Peo- ple's Campaign in which poor people from all over the United States would engage in a massive protest in Washington to demon- strate their grievances to the federal gov- ernment and the nation. That protest had originally been sched- uled for March 1968, but it was postponed when King and Abernathy diverted their attention to supporting a Memphis sanita- tion workers strike for higher wages and ASSOCIATW PRESS recognition of their union. The Rev. Ralph Abernathy, right, and the Rev. H. Ralph Jackson, left, flanked the Rev. Martin They were in Memphis to organize a rally Luther King Jr. during a civil rights march in Memphis in 1968. Abernathy was King's top aide. in support of the strikers when King was mortally wounded by a sniper's bullet while Born on a farm in Marengo County, Ala., standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Mo- Abernathy was the 10th of 12 children. He tel on April 4. After an all night staff meet- served in the Army during World War II ing following King's death, Young an- before being ordained a Baptist minister. nounced that Abernathy was King's "un- He then graduated from Alabama College in questioned" replacement. Montgomery and received a master's de- Under Abernathy's leadership, the SCLC gree in sociology at Atlanta University. promptly resumed work on the Poor Peo- At his death, he was pastor of West Hunt- ple's Campaign, and in early May, caravans er Street Baptist Church in Atlanta, a job he of poor and unemployed people from var- had held since 1961. ious parts of the nation began converging on Washington. He had run unsuccessfully for a Demo- Almost from the beginning, it rained. cratic nomination to the House of Repre- Grassy parkland turned into mud, food sentatives in 1978. In 1980 he supported rotted in cardboard boxes, drug use, thiev- the presidential campaign of Ronald Rea- ery and fighting were rampant, and anarchy gan, a stand that brought criticism from prevailed. Abernathy did not stay at Res- many black leaders. urrection City, whose peak population was Survivors include his wife, Juanita; two 2,600, but instead remained at the Pitts sons, Kwame and Georgia state Rep. Ralph Motor Hotel, and for this he was heavily David Abernathy III; and two daughters, critized. Juandalynn and Donzaleigh. .
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