Ralph David Abernathy a man of the people

A Man of the People The Reverend Dr. Ralph David of the SCLC movement. His work Abernathy- President of the South­ takes him from his pulpit to the em Christian Leadership Confer­ people of his church, to other ence (SCLC), leader of the Poor churches, to the campuses of the People's Campaign, Pastor of the great colleges and universities, and West Hunter Street Baptist Church to the communities of black and in Atlanta, Georgia, world-wide poor people across the nation and spokesman for human rights - is a the world. man of the people. Ralph David Abernathy places Born in rural Alabama, the grand­ human dignity above material son of former slaves, he embodies values, people above things. Since the struggle of black and poor peo­ childhood, he has devoted his life ple, the deep religious tradition of to the cause of justice, equality, and his family, the unconquerable spirit peace. He is the powerful exponent of man. of the black, the poor, the oppressed His love of people is the driving ... and a committed man who car­ force that keeps him on a relentless ries out his words with active schedule of sermons, speeches, leadership in the movement. ministering, and action as leader A Man of Destiny That Monday, community lead­ of destiny had touched Martin ers met during the day amid reports Luther King and Ralph David On Thursday, December 1, 1955, that the boycott was 98 per cent Abernathy. Mrs. Rosa Parks, a black woman, effective. It was decided to organize During the Montgomery Move­ refused to give up her seat to a a new community-wide organiza­ ment, the two leaders developed white man on a bus in Montgomery, tion. Dr. King was elected President the basic strategy of massive non­ Alabama. She was arrested for de­ and Dr. Abernathy was elected violent resistance. This strategy re­ fying the system of segregation. Director of Program and Strategy. sulted in the end of segregation The next morning, Ralph David It was Dr. Abernathy who gave the both on the Montgomery city buses Abernathy conferred by telephone organization its name-the Mont­ and in all intra-state travel. Ulti­ with other black leaders in Mont­ gomery Improvement Association mately, the same strategy brought gomery - including his new friend (M.I.A.) - and prepared a resolution down the official order of racist and colleague, Martin Luther to continue the boycott until de­ segregation in the South, and it is King, Jr.-and then issued the call mands for an end to bus segregation applied today in the broader na­ for an emergency meeting of the were met. The resolution passed at tional human rights movement. leaders later that day. At this meet­ the mass meeting that night. M.I.A. was the direct forerunner ing, Dr. Abernathy took the lead in This chain of events touched off of the Southern Christian Leader­ organizing a boycott of the city the 381-day Montgomery Bus Boy­ ship Conference, founded in Atlanta buses for the following Monday, cott-the historic beginning of the on Jan. 10, 1957, with Dr. King as December 5, and called for a public modern civil rights movement. A President and Dr. Abernathy as mass protest meeting Monday night. revolution was born, and the hand Financial Secretary and Treasurer. .. A Man of Action ville, Chicago , Cleveland, and a years it has been made into a com­ host of rural communities across prehensive economic development From 1955 to 1968, Dr. Abernathy the South and ghettoes of the North. program. Dr. Abernathy called and marched arm-in-arm with Dr. King Wherever they worked, they pro­ chaired the first national confer­ in the freedom revolution. By show­ foundly changed the lives of people. ence of Operation Breadbasket in ing their own personal commit­ To back up the "action" of the 1967, and today it is a nation-wide ment, they summoned the courage movement, they launched through program of SCLC. of masses of people. SCLC such programs as open­ Dr. King and Dr. Abernathy The two leaders and closest of housing campaigns, tenants' asso­ brought a new dimension and new friends utilized a variety of old and ciations, housing projects, Voter power to the movement against the new techniques of nonviolent re­ Registration, Political Education, war in Vietnam, at a time when sistance: marches, mass rallies, and Citizenship Education and such opposition was unpopular boycotts, jail-ins, wade-ins, kneel­ Community Leadership Training. and under severe attack. ins, stand-ins, sit-ins, pray-ins, After witnessing a selective patron­ When Dr. King was assassinated Freedom Rides. age program in Philadelphia, Dr. in Memphis on April 4, 1968, Dr. Together they went to jail 19 Abernathy in 1962 initiated SCLC's Abernathy was there by his side, times, and together they gave lead­ Operation Breadbasket in Atlanta. and in keeping with Dr. King's ership to every major movement, The initial thrust of Breadbasket wishes, he immediately succeeded from Montgomery to Memphis, in­ was to organize ministers to lead to the Presidency of SCLC. Follow­ cluding Albany, Atlanta, Birming­ drives for more and better jobs for ing Dr. King's burial on April 9, the ham, St. Augustine, Selma, Dan- the black community. Over the Board of Directors elected Dr. Aber- nathy as President. pression and the killings of inno­ His first major decision was made cent dissenters, and he continued as a man of action. He carried out the programs of political action and the Poor People's Campaign, with labor organizing. Resurrection City U.S.A . "Resurrection City, USA," in Wash­ ington, D. C., and the dramatic ex­ posure of poverty in the richest nation of all time. Dr. Abernathy moved on in 1969 with the Poor People's Campaign against hunger at the first moon launching at Cape Kennedy and in several major cities. He also began a new movement to organize the working poor, highlighted by the historic Charleston hospital strike. He and SCLC set in motion a new politics of representative govern­ ment with the successful Greene County, Alabama, election of 1969. In 1970, he took action against re- A Man of Courage infant daughter, Juandalynn, were Dr. Abernathy's reasons for going alone at the home and barely es­ to jail can be seen in the 1969 Ralph David Abernathy has faced caped injury and even death as Charleston hospital workers' strike. danger throughout his career. Rec­ they slept when the bomb exploded. Twice he went to jail and fasted­ ognizing this danger to people in Over the years, Dr. Abernathy for seven and 13 days- to drama­ the movement, he said in 1960: has been among the countless peo­ tize the plight of poor workers, and "Too many want a first-class flight ple in the movement who have to strengthen the Charleston strate­ that will originate at the airport in been beaten, jailed, threatened and gy of daily marches, jail-ins, and Egypt, fly across the Red Sea, the persecuted. Because of a false law­ boycotts. The result was a victory wilderness, the Jordan, and land suit that was later overturned, Dr. for the workers of Charleston and them safely at the airport in Canaan. Abernathy's home and car were South Carolina, and for the millions But there will be no such flight. once seized and sold at public auc­ of oppressed workers across the Egypt doesn't even have an airport." tion. He lives almost constantly nation. The Montgomery Bus Boycott under threats. But he has never re­ Later in 1969, Dr. Abernathy brought violent reprisal to the Aber­ treated from the front lines. moved to alert the nation to a grow­ nathy family. On January 10, 1957, In the tradition of nonviolent ing wave of repression. Jailed in while Dr. Abernathy and other resistance, he has willingly ac­ Memphis under a repressive law, black leaders met in Atlanta for the cepted the penalty of jail 30 times, he and four local clergymen re­ founding of SCLC, both his home when he protested against unjust fused to pay their $1 bail and re­ and church in Montgomery were laws and the unjust use of police mained in prison and on fast bombed. Mrs. Abernathy and their powers and legal tactics. through Christmas. It was one of the first alarms sounded against the attempted suppression of dis­ sent and protest in America.

The Abernathy home, Montgomery, jan­ uary 10, 1957. Birmingham 1963. A Man of God Street Baptist Church, which has are bruised, and proclaim the ac­ a rich history of 89 years' service ceptable year of the Lord.'" . The ministry came naturally to to the struggle of black people. Ralph David Abernathy, for he was Dr. Abernathy is universally rec­ imbued by his family, and particu­ ognized as one of the foremost larly his parents, with a deep reli­ preachers of the social gospel- the gious spirit. gospel speaking to the needs of His first Pastorate was at the people in life, and to the responsi­ Eastern Star Baptist Church in bilities of the Church. Demopolis, Alabama, from 1950 As he has said, "Religion without to 1951. In 1951 he began 10 years morality has proved to be the un­ as Pastor of the First Baptist Church doing of men, and has brought con­ in Montgomery. This is the Church tempt and disgrace on nations as where the National Baptist Conven­ well as the Church.... If a Church tion-the largest black organization fails to meet its obligations to the in the world-was organized, and poor, it is betraying its own beliefs. the Church that housed the Mont­ ... The human rights movement is gomery movement when other nothing more than an extension of doors were closed to it. my ministry, my duty to 'feed the Since 1961 Dr. Abernathy has hungry, clothe the naked, free the been Pastor of the West Hunter captives, set at liberty them that ,1

J 1 A Man of Heritage mentary and secondary education Society, Kappa Alpha Delta Hon­ in Linden and was graduated in orary Society, Kappa Alpha Psi Ralph David Abernathy was born 1950 with a Bachelor of Arts degree Fraternity, the National Association March 11, 1926, in Linden (Maren­ at Alabama State University in for the Advancement of Colored go County), Alabama, the 10th of Montgomery. His graduate training People, the Progressive National 12 children (seven sons and five for the Master's Degree in sociology Baptist Convention, the American daughters) of W. L. and Louivory was received from Atlanta Uni­ Baptist Convention, and the Inter­ Abernathy. versity. For one year and a summer, national Interfaith Committee of The family has a rich heritage of Dr. Abernathy taught sociology at World Religions. He is a 32nd­ faith, struggle, education, inde­ his alma mater, Alabama State Uni­ degree Mason. He is an executive pendence, and love for freedom and versity. He holds honorary Doctor and board member of numerous or­ humanity. Despite the adverse cir­ of Law (Ll.D.) degrees from Allen ganizations in the movement, as cumstances endured by all black University and Southampton Col­ well as being President and chief people, Dr. Abernathy's parents in­ lege of Long Island University. He executive officer of SCLC. stilled in their children the family is the recipient of many awards, On August 31 , 1952, Dr. Aber­ heritage with its moral and spiritual honors, and citations. His sermons, nathy married the former Juanita strength. speeches and writings appear on Odessa Jones of Uniontown, Ala­ The parents also did everything recordings and in numerous books bama. They are the proud parents within their power to see that their and periodicals. of three children: Juandalynn Ral­ children would be educated. Dr. Abernathy holds member­ pheda, Donzaleigh A vis, and Ralph Ralph David received his ele- ships in the American Sociological David Ill.

A Man of Peace As the nation's pre-eminent ad­ Peace. In 1968 a peace miSSion vocate of the nonviolent struggle took Dr. and Mrs. Abernathy around for human rights, Dr. Abernathy has the world with a small group of been a leader of the peace move­ inter-religious leaders, with stops ment and an increasingly impor­ in Europe, the Middle East, Japan, tant voice on international issues. Vietnam and India. In 1970 they He and SCLC have repeatedly went to Sweden and Denmark for and consistently played a leading a series of lectures by Dr. Aber­ role in the movement to end the nathy, and, later, to South America war in Southeast Asia. for special conferences with non­ Dr. Abernathy has traveled ex­ violent leaders in Brazil and other tensively, taking his message of countries. The SCLC President has peace and human rights through­ also traveled and lectured in Lon­ out the world, including Africa, don, Paris, Geneva, West Berlin, Asia, South America and Europe. East Berlin, Munich, Bonn, Spain In 1964 he visited Pope Paul VI at and Canada. the Vatican and also accompanied Dr. King to Norway, where the lat­ ter accepted the Nobel Prize for With Archbishop Helder Camara, non­ violent leader of Brazil, 1970.

A Man ofSCLC tion Breadbasket for economic de­ Force," and other printed materials velopment, Citizenship Education such as posters, brochures, and The human rights work of Ralph and Community Organizing, or­ speeches, are available for a small David Abernathy is carried out ganizing the working poor, the contribution upon request. Audio­ through the organization he serves involvement of students and youth visual materials include photo­ as President, the Southern Chris­ in the movement, and participation graphs and the motion pictures tian Leadership Conference. in the cause of peace. "King: A Filmed Record . .. Mont­ SCLC is a movement organiza­ People who support the move­ gomery to Memphis"; "I Have a tion, working throughout the na­ ments and programs of SCLC can Dream"; and "I Am Somebody," tion. Since its founding in 1957, more closely identify with the the story of Resurrection City, USA. SCLC has been unique in its or­ organization by becoming indi­ All of these are valuable organizing ganizing of massive, direct-action vidual members or by affiliating and information tools. movements of people for signifi­ their local groups with the national Dr. Ralph David Abernathy and cant change in economic, political, organization as SCLC Affiliates and SCLC have moved the movement and human affairs. Chapters. into the '70s. To continue and ex­ The organization backs up its Several special continuing serv­ pand this work, SCLC must rely nonviolent action campaigns with ices are available from SCLC. A primarily on the contributions of continuous "grass roots" communi­ nation-wide radio program, "Mar­ concerned individuals who believe ty programs. These include Voter tin Luther King Speaks," is broad­ in our programs. You can be an Registration, Political Education, cast each Sunday on 90 stations. important part of this movement the Poor People's Campaign, Opera- The official SCLC journal, "Soul by sending your financial contri- bution. Donations should be made payable to SCLC; or, if you can give more by making a tax-deductible gift, your contribution can be made payable to the Southern Christian Leadership Foundation.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference 334 Auburn Avenue, N.E. Atlanta, Georgia 30303 Telephone (404) 522-1420