Ralph David Abernathy

Reverend Ralph Abernathy was a leading Civil Rights activist who helped with the Birmingham march along side Martin Luther King. He was a pastor of Montgomery, Alabama's First Baptist Church and met Dr. King when he began preaching at another  Baptist Church in Montgomery. Together they organized the bus boycott of the city bus system, which started the Civil Rights movement in 1956. In Birmingham  they with other Southern Christian Leadership Conference members organized the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement. On April 12 1963 Abernathy and Dr. King were arrested for violating a state circuit court injunction against protests, after leading a march earlier that day. King is placed in solitary confinement. In this picture Abernathy is left of King leading the marchers.

In Martin Luther King's "Letter from A Birmingham Jail" what I found interesting was him pointing out the absence and rejections of white churches helping in the Civil Rights Movement. I have wondered why their wouldn't have been involvement from churches. I would have thought their would have been a lot of help but we never  saw any involvement in history. King addresses them: "..my Christian and Jewish brothers,.I have been gravely disappointed by the white moderate.. who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice;.."(paragraph 23).