Abraham Woods

Abraham Lincoln Woods 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" speech. He was one of 11 children born to his parents, Rev. Abraham Woods Sr. and the former Maggie Wallace. He attended Morehouse College 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.

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.

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 "I Have a Dream" speech on August 28, delivered to a crowd of 250,000 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. 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 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.

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 and Mausoleum.