Home of Ralph David Abernathy

Home of Ralph David Abernathy. (March 11, 1926-April 30, 1990). This was the home of Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, a central leader of the historic events of the Civil Rights Movement., Dr. Abernathy graduated from Alabama State University in 1950 and from Atlanta University in 1951. He and his family lived here while he was pastor of the First Baptist Church located on Ripley Street in Montgomery, Alabama., In 1955, Abernathy along with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., helped lead the successful boycott of Montgomery’s segregated bus system. In 1957, both his church and this home were bombed. In 1960, Abernathy, King and other ministers established the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to lead a nonviolent Civil Rights Movement throughout the South., In 1965 Abernathy and Dr. King helped lead the Selma to Montgomery voting rights march which led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act., Abernathy succeeded Dr. King as president of the SCLC, and within weeks, led the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968, to pursue greater economic opportunity and social justice., Ralph David Abernathy continued to work for the cause of civil rights until his death in 1990.