Ralph David Abernathy
(1926-1990), American minister and civil rights leader who organized nonviolent resistance to segregation and succeeded Martin Luther King, Jr. as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
Ralph Abernathy was born on March 11, 1926, in Linden Alabama, to William and Louivery Abernathy. He earned a B. S. from Alabama Stage College and was ordained a Baptist minister in 1948. In 1951, he received an M.A. in sociology and became pastor of First Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama. He and Martin Luther King, Jr. led the successful boycott of the Montgomery bus system in 1955, protesting segregated public transportation.
In 1957 Abernathy helped King found the Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) to coordinate nonviolent resistance to segregation. After King's assassination in 1968, Abernathy served as SCLC president until he resigned in 1977.
Source: Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, (1999) Edited by, Appiah, Kwame Anthony, & Gates, Henry Louis.
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