FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 7, 2024
MARTA UNVEILS SPECIAL BUS HONORING LONGTIME BOARD MEMBER AND CIVIL RIGHTS ICONS JOSEPH AND EVELYN LOWERY
ATLANTA – The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) proudly unveils a special bus honoring late Civil Rights icons Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery and Evelyn Gibson Lowery.
Rev. Dr. Lowery served on the MARTA Board of Directors for 24 years, four as Chairman. He was among the first Black board members and played a significant role in bringing life to MARTA’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program, ensuring minority businesses had a chance to prosper from the region’s investment in transit.
His wife, Evelyn Lowery was a Civil Rights activist in her own right and Dr. Lowery’s partner through every part of the Movement, including on the historic Selma to Montogomery march in 1965.
“As part of our yearlong celebration of Black history, we want to recognize the profound contributions Dr. Lowery and Evelyn Lowery have made to our transit agency, Atlanta, and the world,” said MARTA General Manager and CEO Collie Greenwood. “As we honor the past, we remain committed to ensuring transit is a place where all are welcome, and much like the Civil Rights movement, where inclusion and equality serve as the foundation for opportunity.”
The Lowery bus was unveiled on Sunday, Oct. 6 at the Lowery Institute for Justice and Human Rights annual fundraiser. For over two decades, the Lowery Institute has honored the vision of Joseph and Evelyn Lowery by fostering a spirit of activism and care for democracy. Sunday’s event also included a conversation with Congresswoman Maxine Waters on the ongoing struggles for justice and human rights across the country.
The bus celebrating Joseph and Evelyn Lowery is part of a series of special buses designed this year featuring Atlanta Civil Rights icons. The Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King bus was unveiled in January to mark the King Holiday, a bus honoring longtime MARTA board member Juanita Jones Abernathy was dedicated in April, a special Congressman John Lewis and Lillian Miles Lewis bus was dedicated in September, and a bus celebrating Ambassador Andrew Young will be unveiled later this year.
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