Reverend A. Leon Lowry, Sr. has been awarded the 1987 Medal of Honor for a Non-Lawyer for his dedication to the principles of equality and perseverance in the quest for social change imperative to the fair and impartial administration of justice. In the face of deteriorating race relations within his community, Reverend Lowry held steady in his opposition to violence as a response to discrimination. With courage and compassion, he led his community through turbulent times, urging that their grief serve instead as the catalyst for change.
Confident that they would prevail by reason of the very rightness of their mission, he awakened the conscience of the community, delivering to public officials their mandate for reform. As clergyman, educator and respected civic leader, he has labored long and hard in the fields of public education, housing, business development and race relations, effective in his efforts to endow the underprivileged and oppressed with the will and the means to share fully in the richness of life. Gifted orator, he is imbued with an authority springing from the strength of his convictions. A gentle man and kind shepherd over his congregation and community, Reverend Lowry has, throughout his life, been an inspiring example of a good steward over all of God’s gifts and humankind.
