FAITH

McClain to speak at NAACP's Freedom Fund Dinner

Times Staff
Dr. William Bobby McClain, a native of Gadsden, is professor emeritus at the Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. [United Methodist News Service]

Author, lecturer, preacher and professor Dr. William Bobby McClain, a native of Gadsden, will be the keynote speaker at the annual Freedom Fund Dinner hosted by Gadsden chapter of the NAACP.

The event is May 31 at the Downtown Civic Center, 629 Broad St. A meet and greet is set for 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 6 p.m.

Topic for discussion will be “How do we ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights and the elimination of racial hatred.”

McClain grew up in Crest Alley in North Gadsden, according to a Times story by correspondent Harry D. Butler on a 2011 appearance and sermon at his home church, Sweet Home United Methodist, where he was ordained as a minister. He is a graduate of Carver High School.

He earned a B.A. degree, summa cum laude, in 1960 at Clark College in Atlanta, and holds a master’s degree and a doctorate from the Boston University School of Theology.

McClain returned to Alabama in 1962 after completing his seminary degree to work with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement. (McClain, while a teenage pastor in Gadsden, had met King in Montgomery, where the civil rights leader was pastoring.) He also served as pastor of Haven Chapel Methodist Church in Anniston, before returning to Boston in 1964 to enter graduate school.

From 1968 to 1978, McClain was senior pastor of the historic Union United Methodist Church in Boston, while doing double duty teaching at Boston College, Emerson College, Harvard University and Northeastern University. He was senior pastor of another historic church, Tindley Temple UMC, from 2001 to 2003, and has preached in pulpits in Africa, Asia, Europe, New Zealand, the West Indies and across the U.S.

McClain served as the director of Boston’s Urban Training Center from 1966 to 1979, and in 1978 established (and was the first executive director of) the Multi-Ethnic Center for Ministry at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. He’s a member of the United Methodist General Commission on Archives and History.

He received an honorary doctorate from Clark in 1991, the Roger Deschner Award from the Fellowship of United Methodists in music in 2013; and was selected as the outstanding alumnus of Boston University’s School of Theology in 2015.

McClain started and chaired the committee that produced the hymnal “Songs of Zion,” and co-chaired the committee that produced a sequel.

He also has authored “Come Sunday: A Liturgical Companion to Songs of Zion,” “Traveling Light: Christian Perspectives on Pluralism” and “Black People in the Methodist Church: Wither Thou Goest,” and co-authored “Heritage and Hope: African American Presence in Methodism” with the late Dr. Grant Shockley and Dr. Karen Collier.

McClain and his wife live in Fort Washington, Maryland.

Former Gadsden City Council member Dr. Randy B. Kelley, pastor of Goodsell United Methodist Church in Lanett and Powell Chapel United Methodist Church in Lafayette, will introduce McClain and Eunice Elliott, morning co-anchor for WVTM-TV in Birmingham, will emcee the event.

Tables of eight for the dinner are available for $25 a person. For more information, contact Dr. Paulette Lipscomb, chapter chairman, 256-492-8952; or Elaine Harris Spearman, Esq., president, 314-243-3616.