16 Sunday,March 29, 2020 DAILY NEWSNYDailyNews.com
SALT LAKE CITY — Three
more of America’s most popular
national parks have closed their
gates as pressure mounted on
superintendents to prevent
crowded trails that could lead to
more spread of coronavirus
even as the Trump adminis-
tration stuck to its decision to
waive entrance fees at the parks.
Glacier in Montana and
Arches and Canyonlands in
Utah announced their decisions
to close Friday night, just days
after several other well-known
parks, such as Yellowstone,
Grand Teton and the Great
Smoky Mountains, did the
same.
Visitors travel to Arches and
Canyonlands to hike trails that
lead to picturesque rock arches
and canyons located just outside
the small tourist town of Moab,
Utah — where city leaders and
regional health leaders sent
letters to the National Park
Service pleading for the closure
of the parks. The health depart-
ment had already banned local
hotels from allowing tourists to
stay after seeing continued
crowds in town and the parks as
the virus spread across the U.S.
In a tweet announcing the
closures, Arches and Can-
yonlands said the decision to
close was made in response to
local health officials.
Park staff was at risk as
visitors kept coming to the
parks, including about 700 cars
aday last weekend, the South-
east Utah Health Department
said in a letter to the park
service. Moab’s small hospital
has only two ventilators — vital
for patients with severe cases of
COVID-19 — and no intensive
care rooms, the letter said.
Glacier National Park Super-
intendent Jeff Mow said Friday
night the decision was made
after listening to concerns from
local leaders and was based on
current health guidance. The
Montana park near the Canadi-
an border heard from gateway
communities in Flathead and
Glacier counties, along with the
Blackfeet Indian Reservation
and the state.
About two weeks ago, Interi-
or Secretary David Bernhardt
said he would waive entrance
fees to give people outdoor
spaces, while authorizing park
superintendents to make deci-
sions about what’s needed to
adhere to health recommenda-
tions.3 more nat’l
parks KOd
by virus fear
BY BRADY MCCOMBS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESSThe Rev. Joseph Lowery, a seminal civil
rights leader who worked alongside the
Rev., Martin Luther King Jr. and delivered
the benediction at President Barack
Obama’s inauguration during a storied
career in the struggle against racial
discrimination, has died of natural causes.
He was 98.
Lowery, the son of an Alabama grocer
and the great-grandson of a barrier-
breaking Methodist pastor, passed away
Friday at his Atlanta home with his
daughters by his side. His longevity and
lifelong outspokenness led to his recog-
nition as “the dean of the civil rights
movement.”
Lowery’s lifelong work for justice also
led Obama to bestow the Presidential
Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest
civilian honor, on the courageous minister
in 2009 — shortly after his appearance at
the swearing-in of the nation’s first black
president.
“In our tradition, he walked the dusty
of roads of South, crying out for justice in
the land of the world,” tweeted the Rev.
Jesse Jackson. “He never stopped fighting
for those whose backs were against the
wall.”
Lowery emerged as one of the preem-
inent leaders in the struggle for equality,
working with King to launch the South-
ern Christian Leadership Conference in
1 957 and continuing his efforts into the
new millennium. Lowery dodged bulletsand went toe to toe with the Klu Klux
Klan at a 1979 protest in Alabama, and
joined in 1960s sit-in and kneel-ins
“where we had been beat up and locked
up and cussed out and locked out,” he
said.
He once recalled the “whoosh” of the
bullets whizzing over his head at the
Alabama demonstration protesting the
rape prosecution of a mentally disabled
black man: “I’ll never forget that. I almost
died 24 miles from where I was born.”
His meetings with fellow clerics King
and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy led to the
creation of the SCLC, a leading force in
the passage of civil rights legislation. And
he provided a role model for generations
of activists to come.“He was a mentor, pastor, & friend to
me,” the Rev. Al Sharpton tweeted
Saturday. “The world is a better place
because of him & I’m a better person
because of his investment in me. May he
rest in peace as he joins his wife and Dr.
King on the other side.”
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) offered
her condolences to the family of a man
she described as a civil rights icon.
“Reverend Joseph Lowery dedicated
his life to fighting for justice and inclusion,
serving others to create a better world,”
tweeted Harris. “His legacy will continue
to live on in the lives of those he touched.”
The charismatic and inspirational
preacher, whose great-grandfather be-
came the first black pastor at their
Methodist church in Alabama, continued
his work for decades after the turbulent
’60s.
He was arrested in 1983 at a North
Carolina protest over the dumping of
toxic waste in a predominantly African-
American county, and again a year later in
Washington at an anti-apartheid rally. He
criticized the war in Iraq at the 2006
funeral of Coretta Scott King, with
then-President George W. Bush and his
father, former President George H.W.
Bush. shaking their heads in their seats.
King’s widow had once observed that
Lowery “has led more marches and been
in the trenches more than anyone since
Martin.”
Lowery became the SCLC president in
1 977, leading the organization into fighting
for gay rights and election reform, andAP; GETTY against capital punishment.
BY THOMAS TRACY
AND LARRY MCSHANE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWSRev. Joseph Lowery (left), who died
Friday, in 1970 Atlanta march with
union leader Leonard Woodcock
and Coretta Scott King, widow of
the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Right, Lowery speaks out for voting
rights in 2013. Below, President
Barack Obama honors him.Lowery, 98, King’s ally in fight for justice, dies
CCiivviill rriigghhttss ‘‘ddeeaann’’