Evelyn Lowery, a civil rights pioneer and wife of the Rev. Joseph Lowery, died Thursday at her home in Georgia at the age of 88. Lowery had been in the hospital recovering from a stroke since Sept. 18 and returned home on Wednesday. 
"My beloved Evelyn was a special woman, whose life was committed to service, especially around the issues of empowering women," Joseph Lowery, a former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said in a statement to the Associated Press. 

In 1965, Lowery participated in the Selma to Montgomery March for Black voting rights. She created SCLC/WOMEN Inc, which worked to empower women, girls and families in 1975. Lowery also founded the Drum Major for Justice Awards held annually in April in Atlanta. 
Earlier this month Joseph and Evelyn Lowery were in Birmingham, Alabama, to participate in the commemoration of the 16th Street Baptist church bombing that killed four Black girls in 1963.

Funeral arrangements for Lowery have not yet been announced.

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