Abraham Lincoln Wood Jr. (October 7, 1928 – November 7, 2008) was an American civil rights leader, who helped coordinate the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and stood behind Martin Luther King Jr. during his historic "

I Have a Dream "I Have a Dream" is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist and Baptist minister, Martin Luther King Jr., during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. In the speech, King called ...

" speech.

Early life

Woods was born on October 7, 1928, in Birmingham, Alabama.Pollone, Chris
"The life and legacy of Rev. Abraham Woods Jr."
'' WVTM-TV'', November 7, 2008. Accessed November 9, 2008. He was one of 11 children born to his parents, Rev. Abraham Woods Sr. and the former Maggie Wallace. He attended

Morehouse College , mottoeng = And there was light (literal translation of Latin itself translated from Hebrew: "And light was made") , type = Private historically black men's liberal arts college , academic_affiliations ...

with Martin Luther King Jr., and later received a Bachelor of Theology at Birmingham Baptist College, a bachelor's degree in sociology at Miles College and a master's degree from the University of Alabama in American history.Hevesi, Dennis
"Abraham Woods, Civil Rights Pioneer, Dies at 80"
'' The New York Times'', November 12, 2008. Accessed November 12, 2008.

Civil rights movement

Woods had been pastor of the First Metropolitan Baptist Church in the early 1960s and led the St. Joseph Baptist Church starting in 1967 as its pastor.Via the '' Associated Press''
"Birmingham civil rights leader Woods dies"
'' Montgomery Advertiser'', November 9, 2008. Accessed November 9, 2008. In addition to his service as the president of the Birmingham chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Woods would often lead community marches to protest community violence, police shootings and slumlords. Woods was one of the coordinators of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and stood behind Martin Luther King Jr. during his "

" speech on August 28, delivered to a crowd of 250,000 from the steps of the

Lincoln Memorial The Lincoln Memorial is a U.S. national memorial built to honor the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is on the western end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., across from the Washington Monument, and is in the ...

. Little more than two weeks after Dr. King's speech, Woods was at the site of the

16th Street Baptist Church bombing The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a white supremacist terrorist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on Sunday, September 15, 1963. Four members of a local Ku Klux Klan chapter planted 19 sticks of dynam ...

minutes after the explosion resulted in the deaths of four girls. "They found shoes. Finally they found bodies. You could smell the human flesh", he told '' The New York Times''. While

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

member Robert Chambliss had been convicted in 1977, a new investigation spurred by Rev. Woods' efforts led to the conviction of Thomas Blanton and

Bobby Frank Cherry Bobby Frank Cherry (June 20, 1930 – November 18, 2004) was an American white supremacist, terrorist, and Klansman who was convicted of murder in 2002 for his role in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963. The bombing killed four young A ...

, two other Klan members, who were found guilty by state juries of all four murders and sentenced to life in prison.

Later life

Woods helped bring attention to the issue of segregation at country clubs, staging protests that the

1990 PGA Championship The 1990 PGA Championship was the 72nd PGA Championship, held August 9–12 at Shoal Creek Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama. Wayne Grady won his only major championship, three strokes ahead of runner-up Fred Couples. In the final ro ...

, one of professional golf's four major tournaments, was going to be played at the

Shoal Creek Golf and Country Club Shoal Creek Club is an invitation-only private golf club in the southeastern United States, located in Shelby County, Alabama, southeast of Birmingham. Opened in 1977, the course was designed by Jack Nicklaus and is rated as the top golf course ...

near Birmingham, which at the time had no black members. The PGA considered moving the tournament to a new site but reached a compromise with the club in which a local insurance executive was invited to become an honorary member with full membership privileges. The PGA and USGA changed rules regarding course selection, requiring clubs that hosted events to meet inclusive membership requirements. In 1997, Woods had been invited to a Promise Keepers luncheon that had been extended to him by a white

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

agent, but was reluctant to attend as he perceived it to be "a white male organization". He attended despite his misgivings and was impressed by the number of the organization's top officers who were black.Goldstein, Laurie
"For Christian Men's Group, Racial Harmony Starts at the Local Level"
'' The New York Times'', September 29, 1997. Accessed November 9, 2008. Introducing himself at a 2004 news conference staged to protest an unjust police shooting, Woods stated that he had "sometimes been called a troublemaker in the city of Birmingham, an agitator," but turned the word around by noting that he didn't resent the title of "agitator" because he could recall that "the little old lady said if a washing machine didn't have an agitator, then it wouldn't get the clothes clean." Woods died at age 80 on November 7, 2008, at Princeton Baptist Medical Center in Birmingham, having battled cancer for several years. He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woods, Abraham Activists for African-American civil rights Deaths from cancer in Alabama Morehouse College alumni Religious leaders from Birmingham, Alabama University of Alabama alumni Promise Keepers 1928 births 2008 deaths Activists from Birmingham, Alabama Baptists from Alabama Burials at Elmwood Cemetery (Birmingham, Alabama) 20th-century Baptist ministers from the United States