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Minister touched so many lives

THE REV. A. LEON LOWRY SR.: 1913-2005. The civil rights leader and educator who never forgot "the lost and the least" is remembered at Beulah Baptist.

By S.I. ROSENBAUM
Published August 28, 2005

	[Times photo: Melissa Lyttle]
	Deacons from Beulah Baptist Institutional Church and Jerusalem M.B. Church carry the casket of the Rev. A. Leon Lowry Sr. following the service on Saturday at Beulah Baptist in Tampa to both mourn the loss and celebrate the life of the civil rights leader.

TAMPA - Vivian Kendrick remembered that the Rev. A. Leon Lowry Sr. always looked her in the eyes.

"When we had a conversation, it was eye to eye," she said. "That's the way he was."

Thomas J. Reed remembered a teacher, a well-mannered man. Dentist David Dolgin recalled a good patient. The Rev. Wallace Bowers remembered a "giant of a man" whose height was matched by his spirit.

Albert N. Wells, 83, didn't know the Rev. A. Leon Lowry Sr. at all. But he came to his funeral anyway, to pay his respects to a fellow soldier in the civil rights movement.

It seemed that the life of the Rev. Lowry had touched everyone who came to his funeral Saturday at Beulah Baptist Institutional Church.

The Rev. Lowry, who died at 92 on Aug. 20, helped transform Tampa during the 1950s and '60s. He was a former head of the state NAACP and the first black person to be elected to countywide public office in Hillsborough County.

In the church where he preached for decades, the speeches praising his works went on for nearly three hours.

"We're not mourning a loss," said Dr. Michael Harris. "We're celebrating a victory: his victory in life over forces that would hurt his people, his victory in terms of letting us know that love is more powerful than hate."

The mostly black crowd answered him: "Yes" and "Amen."

Hillsborough County Judge Perry Little remembered the Rev. Lowry as a product of Morehouse College in Atlanta, where the Rev. Lowry was a student and later famously taught Martin Luther King Jr. as a theology professor.

"I asked him, "Rev. Lowry, what kind of student was Dr. King?' " Little said. "He said, "Brother Little, he had promise.' "

"It's going to be hard to come to church and not look to my right and see him," Little added. "The community will never be the same."

William J. Harris remembered a mentor who taught honesty and selflessness. "It wasn't some selfish altruism," he said. "It was him, to the core, who cared about people, who had that clear voice to shout down the walls of oppression."

Sam Horton, president of the Hillsborough County NAACP, said the Rev. Lowry was crucial to the civil rights movement in the 1950s and '60s. The Rev. Lowry organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters, Horton said. But he also organized a network to bail out those protesters who were arrested.

"He put together a coalition of people in the county and said, if you get in jail, we're going to get you off," Horton said.

The Rev. Lowry could speak truth to power, as when he met with President John Kennedy, Horton said, "But he never lost that common touch."

Pat Frank, clerk of the circuit court, recalled the Rev. Lowry's first political campaign. Frank was leaving her School Board position to run for statewide office. It was 1976. She met with the Rev. Lowry and encouraged him to run for her School Board seat.

"He responded, very quietly and firmly, with the answer "No,' " she recalled.

Frank persisted, eventually telling the Rev. Lowry that she wouldn't leave her seat unless he agreed to run as her replacement, she said.

No black person had ever won a countywide election in Hillsborough. But the Rev. Lowry won the seat.

"He won big," Frank said. "He won bigger than I did. . . . He proved that there is more goodness than hatred in people."

Rep. Jim Davis, Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee, state Sen. Les Miller and City Council member Gwendolyn Miller all spoke about the Rev. Lowry, as thunder boomed outside and rain pattered on the church roof.

Then - after nearly two hours of tributes - it was time for the eulogy.

The Rev. Major Jamison, president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, took the podium. At first, he spoke quietly.

The Rev. Lowry was "a man with an unusual mind," he said. "He drew from a well that was extremely deep." Yet for all the Rev. Lowry's brilliance and erudition, Jamison said, he was not merely an intellect. "A deep mind is one thing, but a sanctimonious, consecrated mind is something totally different."

Jamison's voice built up power. "What do you see when you look at the unfolding of this man's intellectual ability?" he said. "The first thing you see about A. Leon Lowry is that he had the mind of a servant . . . that God has called out of obscurity into prominence."

The Rev. Lowry strove to minister to "the lost and the least," Jamison said.

"He said, "Here are my shoulders. Stand on my shoulders,' " Jamison said. "Yes," said one congregant. "Say that, say that," another said.

" "Here are my hands. Use my hands. Here are my feet. Use my feet. Here is my mind. Think with my mind,' " Jamison roared.

People stood. They clapped. They lifted their hands into the air.

At the end of the service, the Rev. Lowry's recorded voice echoed in the church sanctuary.

"It was God who gave you dignity, equality, and opportunity," he said. "God who lifted you, God you led you all the way from slavery to freedom. It was God."

S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at srosenbaum@sptimes.com or by calling 813 661-2442.

[Last modified August 28, 2005, 12:19:02]