Senate Bill sb2352

    Florida Senate - 2006        (NP)                      SR 2352

    By Senator Miller





    18-648-06

  1                        Senate Resolution

  2         A resolution recognizing the life and work of

  3         Reverend A. Leon Lowry.

  4  

  5         WHEREAS, Reverend A. Leon Lowry was one of Tampa's most

  6  influential civil rights activists and leaders and the first

  7  African-American elected to the Hillsborough County School

  8  Board, and

  9         WHEREAS, Rev. Lowry's roots in the civil rights

10  movement went back as far as his days of teaching theology at

11  Morehouse College in the 1940s, where his students included

12  Martin Luther King, Jr., and

13         WHEREAS, in the 1950s and 1960s, Rev. Lowry was crucial

14  to the civil rights movement in Tampa, organizing sit-ins at

15  segregated lunch counters and organizing a network to bail out

16  protesters who were arrested, and

17         WHEREAS, Rev. Lowry also helped found Tampa's first

18  biracial bank and worked with GTE president Fred Learey to

19  devise a plan to break down racial barriers at the telephone

20  company, and

21         WHEREAS, with his ability to reach out to people of all

22  races, ages, and classes, Rev. Lowry played a critical role in

23  his 16 years on the Hillsborough County School Board,

24  providing the leadership necessary to move through the

25  processes of school integration, and

26         WHEREAS, Rev. Lowry was awarded The Florida Bar

27  Foundation's Medal of Honor in 1987 for his work in easing

28  racial tensions and promoting social justice in Tampa, and

29         WHEREAS, spending the last 8 years of his life

30  counseling inmates at Orient Road, Rev. Lowry continued to

31  

                                  1

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.






    Florida Senate - 2006        (NP)                      SR 2352
    18-648-06




 1  inspire everyone he came into contact with until his death on

 2  Saturday, August 20, 2005, NOW, THEREFORE,

 3  

 4  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:

 5  

 6         That the Senate recognizes and honors the significant

 7  and beneficial work accomplished by the Reverend A. Leon Lowry

 8  in the civil rights struggle in Tampa and the State of

 9  Florida.

10         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution,

11  with the Seal of the Senate affixed, be presented to the

12  surviving members of Rev. Lowry's family - his wife, Shirley

13  Lowry, and their sons and stepsons.

14  

15  

16  

17  

18  

19  

20  

21  

22  

23  

24  

25  

26  

27  

28  

29  

30  

31  

                                  2

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.