Atlanta, GA – Members of Black Women’s Roundtable, the women’s initiative of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP), issued the following statement on the passing of beloved civil rights leader Dr. Evelyn Gibson Lowery founder of SCLC/Women’s Organizational Movement for Equality Now, Inc.
“Sister Evelyn Lowery, our Matriarch of the Movement, was always there-supporting her loving husband Joe, sustaining her “sisters in the struggle”, and serving an untold number of disenfranchised women, children and families across all boundaries of ethnicity, gender, age or religion. From voting rights, to civil rights, to women’s rights, to human rights – Sister Lowery was one of the original, authentic Freedom Fighters.
“As I reflect on the many years that I served alongside her as a member on the SCLC/W.O.M.E.N., INC. board of directors, I can recall her gentle smile, the twinkle in her eye that spoke to her approachableness, but also the slight turn of the head that would signal the strong determination in her words that would be so clearly articulated that they would stop a room.
“Her dedication and determination was so solid, so firmly fixed, that her every action spoke to her nurturing spirit to uphold the tenets of the civil rights movement, but also to lift the women’s rights within the movement. She was responsible for honoring civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo, with a monument along the Freedom trail. She was a foot soldier whose shoes will take many of us to fill, we will miss her dearly.”
-Clayola Brown, SCLC/W.O.M.E.N. Inc. Board Member and President, A. Philip Randolph Institute.
