--- title: Al Sharpton on the Invaluable Activism of Juanita Abernathy description: Al Sharpton writes that though Juanita Abernathy didn’t get the credit she was due, she was a pivotal part of the civil-rights movement. canonical: https://time.com/5681005/al-sharpton-juanita-abernathy-obituary/ author: Al Sharpton article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-09-19T10:16:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T07:24:00.830Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Al Sharpton on the Invaluable Activism of Juanita Abernathy og:description: Abernathy died on Sept. 12 at 88 og:url: https://time.com/5681005/al-sharpton-juanita-abernathy-obituary/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea5a9111468384ee/698a032522fb854141e29dc5/al-sharpton-juanita-abernathy-obituary-crop.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1351 og:image:alt: al-sharpton-juanita-abernathy-obituary-crop og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Al Sharpton on the Invaluable Activism of Juanita Abernathy twitter:description: Abernathy died on Sept. 12 at 88 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea5a9111468384ee/698a032522fb854141e29dc5/al-sharpton-juanita-abernathy-obituary-crop.jpg?branch=production ---  # Al Sharpton on the Invaluable Activism of Juanita Abernathy by [Al Sharpton](https://time.com/author/al-sharpton/) ## Al Sharpton Sep 19, 2019 10:16 AM UTC  Juanita Abernathy at her home in Atlanta, July 3, 1969 Juanita Abernathy at her home in Atlanta, July 3, 1969AP by [Al Sharpton](https://time.com/author/al-sharpton/) ## Al Sharpton Sep 19, 2019 10:16 AM UTC Juanita Abernathy used to say she’d known me since I was a little boy, before I got “controversial and famous.” I joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference when I was 13, shortly after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. Ralph Abernathy succeeded him as president, and Juanita, who died on Sept. 12 at 88, was its First Lady. When Dr. King was new in Montgomery, Ala., Juanita had become the support system for the King family. When Dr. King’s house was bombed after the bus boycott, the Abernathy house was bombed too. Juanita was the backbone of that family, and that family was the backbone of the civil rights movement. She was at the marches; she was at the rallies; she spoke to women in the churches about what needed to be done. Unlike her husband and Dr. King, she didn’t get the credit she deserved, but she was a pivotal part of the movement. _Sharpton is host of PoliticsNation and president of the National Action Network_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5681005/al-sharpton-juanita-abernathy-obituary/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5681005/al-sharpton-juanita-abernathy-obituary/"},"headline":"Al Sharpton on the Invaluable Activism of Juanita Abernathy","datePublished":"2019-09-19T10:16:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T07:24:00.830Z","description":"Activist's activist","url":"https://time.com/5681005/al-sharpton-juanita-abernathy-obituary/","keywords":["remembrance"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea5a9111468384ee/698a032522fb854141e29dc5/al-sharpton-juanita-abernathy-obituary-crop.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Al Sharpton","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/al-sharpton/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea5a9111468384ee/698a032522fb854141e29dc5/al-sharpton-juanita-abernathy-obituary-crop.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"al-sharpton-juanita-abernathy-obituary-crop","caption":"Juanita Abernathy at her home in Atlanta, July 3, 1969","creditText":"AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/remembrance/","name":"remembrance"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5681005/al-sharpton-juanita-abernathy-obituary/","name":"Al Sharpton on the Invaluable Activism of Juanita Abernathy"}}]}] ```