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Private funeral, public memorial later set for Joseph Lowery

ATLANTA (AP) — A small, private funeral service for the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery will be held this week out of concerns about the coronavirus, but a large public memorial for the civil rights leader will be held this fall, family members said Tuesday.

This week's private service will include 10 family members, Lowery's daughter, Cheryl Lowery, said Tuesday. Specific details of the private service are not being made public.

Keeping people safe is the most important thing at this time as the world battles the coronavirus, said Cheryl Lowery, who is president and CEO of The Joseph & Evelyn Lowery Institute.

“Our family has just simply been blown away by the outpouring of love and support for my father and his legacy that has come from actually around the world,” Cheryl Lowery said.

Lowery, who helped the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, died Friday. He was 98.

Once the nation gets through the virus crisis, a public memorial service is planned for Oct. 6, which would have been Lowery's 99th birthday. Details are still being worked out.

“We know that our country and our world are going to get through these tragic times and when we do, we will honor Dr. Lowery and his legacy together as a community in a manner that he deserves," Cheryl Lowery said.

Lowery loved to celebrate, and the October memorial will be a time of celebration, family spokesman Imara Canady said.

“So we felt it would be a great opportunity to bring the global community together to lift him up at a time of celebration that he so enjoyed," Canady said.

Lowery led the Southern Christian Leadership Conference for two decades. Former President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.