Joseph Echols Lowery (October 6, 1921 – March 27, 2020) was an American minister in the United Methodist Church and leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He later became the third president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, after Martin Luther King Jr.. He was president from 1977 to 1997. He was born in Huntsville, Alabama. In 2009, President Barack Obama honored him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.