Clergyman; civil rights activist.\u00a0 Born– March 11, 1926, Hopewell Community, near Linden, in Marengo County.\u00a0 Parents– William L. and Louivery Bell Abernathy.\u00a0 Married– Juanita Odessa Williams.\u00a0 Children– four.\u00a0 Alabama State University, B.A., 1951; Atlanta University, M.A. in sociology, 1958.\u00a0 Served in U.S. Army WWII.\u00a0 Ordained to the Baptist ministry in 1948; served\u00a0\u00a0as pastor of several churches:\u00a0 Eastern Star Baptist Church, Demopolis, 1951-52; First Baptist Church, Montgomery, 1952-61; West Hunter Street Baptist, Atlanta, 1961-1990.\u00a0Close friend and supporter of Martin Luther King\u00a0Jr.;\u00a0 with King organized the Montgomery Improvement Association, which led the Montgomery Bus Boycott \u00a0boycott to its successful conclusion, 1955-56.\u00a0 Helped found and organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, with King as president and Abernathy as secretary-treasurer. An associate of King in several civil rights\u00a0actions; was with\u00a0him\u00a0 when he was assassinated in Memphis in 1968.\u00a0 Succeeded King as president\u00a0of the Southern\u00a0Christian Leadership Conference, 1968-77; led the Poor People’s March on Washington in 1968.\u00a0 \u00a0Conducted an unsuccessful campaign for Congress in 1978. Founded the Foundation for Economic Enterprise Development in the 1980s. In demand as a speaker on civil rights and related issues.\u00a0 Died April 17, 1990.<\/p>\n
Sources;<\/strong><\/p>\n Dictionary of American Biography; obituary.<\/p>\n Publications;<\/strong><\/p>\n And the Walls Came Tumbling Down.\u00a0 New York:\u00a0 Harper and Row, 1989.<\/p>\n Contributor;<\/strong><\/p>\n Garrow, David.\u00a0 The Walking City; The Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955-56.\u00a0 Carlson, 1989.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Clergyman; civil rights activist.\u00a0 Born– March 11, 1926, Hopewell Community, near Linden, in Marengo County.\u00a0 Parents– William L. and Louivery Bell Abernathy.\u00a0 Married– Juanita Odessa Williams.\u00a0 Children– four.\u00a0 Alabama State University, B.A., 1951; Atlanta University, M.A. in sociology, 1958.\u00a0 Served in U.S. Army WWII.\u00a0 Ordained to the Baptist ministry in 1948; served\u00a0\u00a0as pastor of several […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-c"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3575"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3585,"href":"https:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3575\/revisions\/3585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lib.ua.edu\/Alabama_Authors\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}