2. What was he known for?
First, Ralph David Abernathy worked with the
famous and well known Martin Luther King
Jr. and he was a baptist minister. He gave
speeches as well as being a baptist minister.
3. Early life
-He was born on March 11, 1926 in Liden, Al
- He lived on a 500 acre farm
-He went to linden academy what was a baptist school
- In World War II he was a Platoon Sergeant before earning an
honorable discharge as a result of his bout of rheumatic fever in
Europe.
- He then enrolled at Alabama state university
-He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1948
-In 1950 he received a BS in Mathematics from Alabama State
University.
-In 1951 he earned a Master of Science degree in sociology from
Atlanta University.
-He preached his first sermon on Mother's Day, 1948, in honor of
his recently deceased mother.
-He also married Juanita Odessa Jones
4. Close allies
In 1954, Martin Luther king jr. became a minister at a church
close to where Ralph was working. So Ralph decided to mentor
martin. They became leaders of the civil rights movement. In
1955, the pair founded the Montgomery Improvement
Association and organized a Montgomery Bus Boycott. In 1957,
he and King helped found the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference. A few years later, Abernathy hosted a rally for the
Freedom Riders, black and white activists who traveled by bus
to protest segregation in the South. When Martin was
assassinated Ralph kept his spirit alive and became president of
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (Sclc) .
5. Death/legacy
In 1977 Ralph ran for U.S.
House of Representatives but
didn't get elected. In 1989 his
autobiography, And The Walls
Come Tumbling Down, got
published. But sadly Ralph D.
Abernathy died on April 17,
1990, in Atlanta, Georgia. In
Martin's last speech he said
that Ralph was his best friend.
6. •
Where did I get my
information
http://www.biography.com/people/ralph-d-abernathy-9174397?page=2
