Rights Leader Lowery Denied S. African Visa

ATLANTA — Civil rights leader Joseph Lowery has been denied a visa for a trip to South Africa to deliver a sermon at memorial services for Martin Luther King Jr., his wife said today.

Evelyn Lowery said the South African Embassy in Washington gave her husband, who is president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, no reason for the denial. “We have our suspicions, Mrs. Lowery said. “You know the situation in South Africa, the persecution of black leaders there, and they certainly know we’re in sympathy (with South Africa’s blacks).”