Here's an in-depth look at civil rights leader Joseph Lowery's life.

Personal: Birth date: October 6, 1921

Birthplace: Huntsville, Alabama

Birth name: Joseph Echols Lowery

Father: LeRoy Lowery, store owner

Mother: Dora (Fackler) Lowery, a teacher

Marriages: Evelyn Gibson (1947-present)

Children: With Evelyn: Yvonne, Karen, Cheryl; with mother unknown to Fast Facts researchers: Joseph Jr. and LeRoy II

Education: Attended Alabama A&M University and Knoxville College; Payne College & Theological Seminary, B.A., B.D.; Chicago Ecumenical Institute, D.D., 1950

Other Facts: A founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

Is sometimes referred to as the "dean of the civil rights movement."

Worked as an editor for a black Birmingham newspaper the Informer.

Continued to lead marches and boycotts against racism in the south after Dr. King's death.

Brought the SCLC into the political fray after Andrew Young was forced to resign as UN ambassador for meeting with PLO member Zehdi Labib Terzi in 1979.

Spent over two decades as a board member for MARTA, the public transportation system of Atlanta.

Timeline: 1950 - Is ordained a Methodist minister.

1952-1961 - Pastor of Mobile, Alabama's Warren Street United Methodist Church.

1955 - Begins organizing for the civil rights movement in Mobile, Alabama.

1957 - The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is founded.

1957-1967 - Is named vice-president of the SCLC. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is president.

1964-1968 - Pastor at St. Paul's Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

1967-1977 - National Chairman and member of board of directors SCLC.

February 1977-January 15, 1998 - National President and CEO of SCLC.

August 20, 1979 - With a delegation of SCLC members meets with Zehdi Labib Terzi, the PLO's chief observer at the United Nations.

February 5-18, 1982 - Organizes the longest civil rights march. More than 3,500 supporters march from Carrollton, Alabama, to Montgomery, Alabama, demanding the extension of the voting rights act.