Joseph E. Lowery, co-founder with Dr. King of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, served as its national president from 1977 to 1998 and was chosen by Dr. King to chair the delegation that delivered the demands of the Selma-to-Montgomery March to the governor. In 2009, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor. Evelyn Gibson Lowery founded and chaired SCLC W.O.M.E.N., Inc., the Women’s Organizational Movement for Equality Now, from 1979 to 2013, and in 1987 founded the Evelyn Gibson Lowery Civil Rights Heritage Tour, which placed 13 monuments throughout Alabama.