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Civil rights icon Joseph Lowery hospitalized

By theGrio

9:21 AM on 02/01/2010

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Joseph Lowery speaks at the National Press Club in Washington about where the nation has come in the 45 years since Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

ATLANTA (AP) -- Civil rights icon Joseph Lowery is in an Atlanta hospital because of respiratory problems.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that a friend of the 88-year-old says Lowery was admitted to a hospital on Saturday and placed in an intensive care unit as a precaution.

The newspaper reports that Lowery's friend David Stokes says Lowery is doing better and expects to be released from the hospital on Monday.

A hospital spokesman declined to comment to The Associated Press and messages left for associates of Lowery were not immediately returned.

Lowery was a co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and served as its president from 1977 to 1997. He delivered the benediction at the inauguration of President Barack Obama.