Joseph Lowery Passed Away!

Joseph Lowery, a legendary civil rights leader passed away on Friday.

A living legend of American civil rights passed away overnight.

Joseph Lowery, the former aide to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and pioneer of the civil rights movement died at the age of 98.

Lowery's death was confirmed by family representative Imara Canady, who said he died of natural causes. No confirmation of the coronavirus.

Tonight, the great Reverend Joseph E. Lowery transitioned from earth to eternity. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family. He was a champion for civil rights, a challenger of injustice, a dear friend to the King family.

Thank you, sir.

[📸: MLK, Lowery, Wyatt Tee Walker] pic.twitter.com/PGHpBJJjNm

— The King Center (@TheKingCenter) March 28, 2020

Lowery.
Vivian.
Young.
Shuttlesworth. pic.twitter.com/9VETMocFk8

— The King Center (@TheKingCenter) March 28, 2020

It’s hard to imagine a world or an Atlanta without Reverend #JosephLowery. I’m grateful for a life well-lived and for its influence on mine. I’ll miss you, Uncle Joe. You finally made it up to see Aunt Evelyn again. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/WZK10uKjeY

— Be A King (@BerniceKing) March 28, 2020

Dr. Lowery,along with Dr King, was one of the founding members of SCLC.He became president for 27 years. In our tradition,he walked the dusty of roads of South, crying out for justice in the land of the world. He never stopped fighting for those whose backs were against the wall. pic.twitter.com/4JXzEDmy9i

— Rev Jesse Jackson Sr (@RevJJackson) March 28, 2020

Dr. Joseph Lowery, the dean of the civil rights movement has passed. He was a mentor, pastor, & friend to me. The world is a better place because of him & I’m a better person because of his investment in me. May he Rest In Peace as he joins his wife & Dr. King on the other side. pic.twitter.com/5vz0y51NNT

— Reverend Al Sharpton (@TheRevAl) March 28, 2020

Lowery's death is huge. He was the "dean" of the civil rights movement. He worked hand in hand in the movement's formative years with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), Ralph Abernathy and Jesse Jackson.

He once said he missed "Martin" and other civil rights activists who had died before him. But he felt that God was keeping him for a single cause: To address the injustices of the criminal justice system, particularly towards poor black men.

Born Joseph Echols Lowery in Huntsville, Alabama, he worked to change the social norms of America. He was young boy working in his father's sweatshop when a dirty cop punched him in the stomach with a nightstick.

"A big white policeman was coming in, and he punched e in the stomach with his nightstick," Lowery told the Atlanta Tribune magazine in 2004.

"He said, 'Get back NIGGER, Don't you see a white man coming in the door?'"

After graduating from college, Lowery became an ordained Methodist minister who served congregations in Alabama and Georgia. He later became a peace activist, joining the fight against segregation and organizing marches in Selma and Birmingham, Alabama.

Barack Obama honored Joseph Lowery with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

He served more than nearly a half a century as a pastor, spending much of that time with Central United Methodist and Cascade United Methodist Churches in Atlanta, Georgia.

In 1957, as racial tensions rose in the South, Lowery heled King start the Southern Christian Leadership Conference organization. They worked to convince Democratic president Lyndon B. Johnson to sign into law The Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. Both laws became historical.

Lowery delivered the benediction at Barack Obama's inauguration in 2009. He awarded Lowery the Presidential Medal of Freedom shortly after.

Lowery also started the Coalition for the People's Agenda in 1998 to educate and register new voters, and he had continued to do so until his passing.

He leaves behind five children. He was then married to Evelyn Gibson before her passing.