Civil rights leader Joseph Lowery dies

The man considered the dean of the civil rights movement died at age 98 Friday night. The Rev. Joseph E. Lowery succumbed to natural causes not related to the coronavirus at his home in Atlanta, according to a statement released by his family.

What was Lowery know for? He sought to end segregation alongside his friend Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950s and ’60s and served as the leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference for two decades, retiring in 1997. Lowery’s best remembered for his impassioned delivery of sermons and speeches, including his prayer at President Barack Obama’s first inauguration: “We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back; when brown can stick around; when yellow will be mellow; when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right.”

Dig deeper: Watch Lowery’s benediction at Obama’s inauguration in 2009, where he called for “justice to roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”