Abernathy was a close friend and advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Both men were co-founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which helped plan the Montgomery Bus Boycott. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation of buses violated the Constitution, Abernathy’s home and church were bombed. He and his family were not harmed in the incident. In 1989, Abernathy published his memoir titled, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down. He died just a few months later. At Abernathy’s request, his tomb bears the inscription, “I Tried.”
An undated, color photo of Ralph Abernathy.
Photo: Corbis
Image source: New Georgia Encyclopedia
“Violence is the weapon of the weak.”
-American minister Ralph Abernathy, born on this day in 1926
He was a major figure in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ’60s.
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