Rev who gave Obama's inaugural benediction
reportedly says he thinks whites going to hell
Published November 01, 2012
FoxNews.co
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FILE: October 16, 2011: Church Minister Joe Lowery speaks at the Martin
Luther King, Jr. memorial dedication on the National Mall in Washington. (REUTERS)
The reverend and civil rights advocate who gave the benediction at
President Obama’s inauguration suggested at a recent Obama re-election rally
that he thinks white people are going to hell -- though he later said it was
just a joke.
The Rev. Joseph Lowery spoke at a rally Saturday in Georgia. According
to an account in the Monroe County Reporter, "Lowery said that when he was
a young militant, he used to say all white folks were going to hell. Then he
mellowed and just said most of them were.
"Now, he said, he is back to where he was," according to the
newspaper.
"I don’t know what kind of a n----- wouldn’t vote with a black man
running," he also told the audience in the St. James Baptist Church in
Forsyth, Ga., according to the paper.
The 91-year-old Lowery, though, told an Atlanta-area TV station and the
Daily Caller that the monologue was a joke and from the perspective of a young
militant.
Lowery also said he made clear at the time that the comments -- at the
event reportedly attended by hundreds of African Americans -- were intended as
a joke.
Still, Forsyth Mayor John Howard said he was “pretty shocked” by the
comments, according to the newspaper.
Lowery told the Daily Caller he doesn’t remember making the n-word
comment.
“I never said that, I don’t remember saying that.”
Lowery was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 by
President Obama. His benediction in 2009 for Obama's inauguration included one
racially charged, though somewhat whimsical, line.
He closed with the following passage: "Lord, in the memory of all
the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we
ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in
back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man
can get ahead, man -- and when white will embrace what is right."