On April 17, 1990, Rev. Ralph David Abernathy—close friend, confidant, and co-strategist to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—died of heart failure at age 64. As a founding member and key leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Abernathy played a central role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and many of the most significant civil rights campaigns of the 1960s. After King’s assassination in 1968, Abernathy assumed the presidency of the SCLC and led the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington, D.C. Though often overshadowed by King, Abernathy’s voice, vision, and leadership were foundational to the movement for racial justice in America.
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