SCLC Picks New Leader After Rebuff By Bernice King

ATLANTA (AP) - The Southern Christian Leadership Conference has elected a new president after the daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. refused to take the position earlier this month.

The Rev. Howard Creecy Jr. was elected Sunday in Kenner, La. He is pastor of Olivet Church in Fayetteville, Ga., and a native of Mobile, Ala. More recently, he was SCLC's interim president.

Creecy was elected at the civil rights group's annual chapters and affiliates meeting, where the SCLC certified 30 new chapters across the South, raising the number of chapters to 110.

The SCLC was co-founded in 1957 by King. Over the weekend, King's nephew, Isaac Ferris Jr., was elected vice president. Martin Luther King III, a former SCLC president, is also on its board of directors.