VIDEO: Albert Shanker Award for Distinguished Service: Dr. Joseph E. Lowery
About Dr. Joseph E. Lowery
Dr. Joseph E. Lowery is co-founder, with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., of the SCLC in 1957; served as vice president (1957-67); chairman of the board (1967-77); and as president and chief executive officer from February 1977 - January 1998. Dr. King named him chairman of the delegation to take demands of the Selma-to-Montgomery March (1965) to Gov. George Wallace. That month, UFT President Albert Shanker flew to Selma and handed Dr. King the keys to station wagons donated by the union to transport voters to register. Shanker then joined King, Lowery and thousands of others in marching from Selma to Montgomery.