Georgia Medical Examiner: SCLC President Died from Fall

August 28, 2011

Georgia Medical Examiner: SCLC President Died from Fall

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

creecy

Rev. Dr. Howard Creecy Jr.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - A Georgia medical examiner says Dr. Howard Creecy Jr., the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, died of blunt force trauma to the head after falling down stairs at his Atlanta home.

Early speculations were that the 57-year-old minister had died of a heart attack July 28. But, a spokesman for the Fulton County medical examiner's office has said that Dr. Creecy's death is listed as an accident. Authorities are unsure what caused Dr. Creecy to fall down the stairs.

Dr. Creecy, pastor of The Olivet Church in Fayette County, was elected SCLC president in January after Rev. Bernice King, daughter of the organization's co-founder, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., declined the position.

The SCLC has named Isaac Newton Farris, Jr., nephew of Dr. King, as its president. Dr. King co-founded the civil rights organization in 1957.

SCLC officials also announced that Bernard LaFayette Jr., co-founder of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, has been named national board chairman. He replaces the Rev. Sylvia Tucker of Disputanta in Prince George County, Va., who resigned.

The SCLC board also named Don Cash, a Washington, D.C., labor official, as vice chairman and Louisiana attorney Randal L. Gaines as acting vice president.