Ralph D. Abernathy And The Civil Rights Era Essay, Research Paper

“There probably could not have been a civil rights movement without the contributions he made.” (qtd. in USA Today) That was a statement made by Andrew Young, a former Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, reflecting upon the life of the late Reverend Ralph D. Abernathy. While he’s probably not given as much credit as is due, Ralph Abernathy was very influential throughout the entire Civil Rights Movement. Together with Martin Luther King, Jr., he helped establish the rights that many American citizens enjoy each and every day. Born on March 11, 1926, Ralph Abernathy grew up in hopes of someday being a Baptist minister. In 1948, at the age of 22, he was ordained and took a post as the minister at the First Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama. Meanwhile, he had been working hard to earn a BS degree in Mathematics from Alabama State and an MA degree in Sociology from Atlanta University. (Encarta) Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King, Jr. crossed paths in 1954 at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Montgomery. (World Book) The following year, after Rosa Parks was arrested for not abiding by segregation laws on a city bus, Abernathy, along with King successfully organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott that lasted until 1956. (Encarta) Abernathy also helped King to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957. This group was composed mostly of African-American ministers from the South who worked towards racial equality by means of peaceful demonstrations and protests. The defining moment for the SCLC was the 1963 March on Washington. However, by the late 1960’s, the SCLC had begun to slip from its position as the most prominent civil rights group in the country. Its policy of nonviolence had lost favor to new groups with a more militaristic attitude. (Columbia) Ralph Abernathy continued on, side by side with Martin Luther King until his assassination in 1968. Abernathy then succeeded King as the President of the SCLC. (Encarta)

Despite the SCLC’s loss of prominence, Abernathy successfully led two more civil rights campaigns in 1969. The first was in support of a strike by sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. The second was called the Poor Peoples Campaign and protested the U.S. hunger conditions at that time. It lasted from May 3 to June 23. (The Movement) Abernathy remained President of the SCLC until 1977. He was succeeded by Rev. Joseph Lowery. That same year, he unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. For the remainder of his life, Ralph Abernathy served as a minister at the West Hunter Street Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Abernathy’s autobiography, The Walls Came Tumbling Down, published in 1989, was criticized by a few civil rights leaders because of its reference to Martin Luther King being involved in extramarital affairs. (Jet 14) Abernathy had suffered strokes in 1983 and 1986. His poor health condition progressed in early 1990 when he was hospitalized for what doctors called a “low sodium condition.” Just a few months later, on April 17th, Ralph Abernathy died of a heart attack caused by a blood clot. He was 64 years old. (Encarta) Since the beginning of our nation over 200 years ago, there have been many different individuals, men and women alike, who have helped to establish the civil rights and liberties that we sometimes take for granted. Some of these leaders are remembered better than others, but unfortunately, Ralph Abernathy has, for the most part, been forgotten about. At Abernathy’s funeral service, his son, Ralph David III, compared him to the character David from the bible saying that he “slew the Goliath of racism” and also served as an outstanding role model. (Jet 15) While his accomplishments may not be as significant as that of Fredrick Douglas or Martin Luther King himself, who knows where our nation would be today without his hard work and dedication to this cause.