Boise Kimber

Last updated
Boise Kimber
Born(1959-02-09)February 9, 1959
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Pastor, activist

Boise Kimber (born February 9, 1959) is an American Baptist minister and civil rights activist. He is the pastor of First Calvary Baptist churches in New Haven and Hartford, Connecticut; he is also the president of the National Baptist Convention of the United States of America.

Contents

Early life and education

Boise Kimber was born in 1959 in Phenix City, Alabama to parents Milburn and Ruthie Kimber; he was the middle child of three children. He attended local schools and graduated from Central High School. Raised in the Baptist Church, he began preaching at age 15.

In 1981, Kimber completed his undergraduate studies at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, and in 1997, he earned a Master of Arts Degree in Religious Life from Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut. In May 2001, he completed his Doctorate Degree in Ministry at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. His approved dissertation title was Developing a Social Justice Consciousness in a Local Congregation. [1]

Political and community life

In Connecticut, Kimber has been described as one of the “powerful players within the black community”. [2] Locally, Kimber is president emeritus of the Greater New Haven Clergy Association, a consultant to the office of Multicultural Affairs and the Multicultural Center at Southern Connecticut State University, a Fire Commissioner for the City of New Haven, a Director for Aids Interfaith Network, Inc., an advisor to local labor unions, and a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity.

In 2001 Kimber participated in a congressional lunch of ministers; participants talked about revitalizing black and urban communities and the role of social institutions such as church and family in meeting that goal. [3]

Kimber formerly served as the chairman of the New Haven Fire Commission, where he was embroiled in controversy after the union head accused him making racist comments. After Kimber stepped down from leadership, long-serving New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, Jr., who appointed Kimber, said he was “pleased that he acknowledged that they were inappropriate and demonstrated real leadership by not letting his leadership as head of the commission become an issue." [4]

In 2012, he hosted Sharpton at a get-out-the-vote rally. [5]

Kimber served as president of the Connecticut Missionary Baptist State Convention, and in 2013 was a candidate for president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, the nation’s oldest and largest African-American religious group. While addressing the Louisiana Missionary Baptist State Convention (LMBSC) in November 2013, Kimber said,

“We must speak for those who cannot speak for themselves, for those who are disenfranchised… we must have a voice… When was the last time you heard this convention talk about anything that was wrong in our world? We said nothing about Trayvon Martin; we said nothing about the (federal government) shutdown. We said nothing about gay and lesbian marriages." [6] Kimber was later endorsed by LMBSC President C.S. Gordon Jr. [7]

In July 2013, Kimber led a coalition of religious and social groups in a "Justice for Trayvon" vigil to press the federal government to investigate civil rights charges against George Zimmerman. Kimber said, "How many more times do we have to rally around justice for our children? How many more courts will free overzealous vigilantes who gun down unarmed American citizens and cry self-defense? Black and Brown American teens should feel confident that the American justice system also works for them; the Zimmerman acquittal tells them otherwise." [8]

After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Kimber led a prayer service with Al Sharpton for the victims and survivors of the mass shootings. “We come here in solidarity with our brother and sister up the street to let you know your pain is our pain and your hurt is our hurt,” said Kimber. [9] On Sharpton's national television news show later that evening, Kimber added that, "We come tonight to ask that communities all over this country, let`s come together, stand together, and let`s begin to work with Congress, Senate and let`s make sure that our representatives understand what is happening within our communities." [10]

In 2014 Kimber partnered with a local businessman to announce the launch of a $1 million loan program for urban churches. [11] Additionally, he and the same businessman have been conducting job fairs in urban churches throughout Connecticut. [12]

Kimber was recently honored at the National Action Network's national convention for his service to the church and the community. President Barack Obama presented the keynote speech that focused on the importance of protecting voting rights. [13]

In 2025, he was installed as the president of the National Baptist Convention, USA. [14]

US Supreme Court case Ricci v. DeStefano (2009)

As Chairman of the New Haven Fire Commission, in 2004, Kimber lobbied with other members to set aside the results of a firefighter's promotion exam, as no blacks qualified highly enough to have a chance at the available slots. Using the exam results would have promoted whites and a Latino firefighter to the available upper positions. The 20 firefighters who qualified for promotion under this exam filed suit against the city for its action.

In his concurring opinion in Ricci v. DeStefano (2009), Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito singled out Kimber for having political motivations in his decision to set aside the results. This brought Kimber into the center of the controversy and led to mass media attention. [15] Journalist Emily Bazelon of Slate referred to Kimber as "a convenient example of small-time race baiting and semi-thuggery." [16]

Philanthropy

In 2016 Don Vaccaro and Rev Kimber launched Grace Church Websites, a non-profit that offers local churches and nonprofit groups in the New Haven area a wide variety of free Web-related services, including domain registration, website maintenance, annual domain renewal, content management system, and hosting. Since February 2016, the company has worked with more than 600 churches and nonprofit organizations to launch free websites. [17] [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Haven, Connecticut</span> City in Connecticut, United States

New Haven is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Connecticut after Bridgeport and Stamford, the largest city in the South Central Connecticut Planning Region, and the principal municipality of Greater New Haven, which had a total population of 864,835 in 2020. Prior to 1960, it was the county seat of New Haven County until the county governments were abolished that year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al Sharpton</span> American Baptist minister, activist and talk show host (born 1954)

Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. is an American civil rights and social justice activist, Baptist minister, radio talk show host, and TV personality, who is also the founder of the National Action Network civil rights organization. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidential election. He hosts a weekday radio talk show, Keepin' It Real, which is nationally syndicated by Urban One, and he is a political analyst and weekend host for MSNBC, hosting PoliticsNation.

<i>Hartford Courant</i> Daily newspaper in Connecticut, US

The Hartford Courant is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is advertised as the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven and east of Waterbury, its headquarters on Broad Street in Hartford, Connecticut was a short walk from the state capitol. It reports regional news with a chain of bureaus in smaller cities and a series of local editions. It also operates CTNow, a free local weekly newspaper and website.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John DeStefano Jr.</span> American mayor

John DeStefano Jr. is an American politician who served as the 49th mayor of New Haven, Connecticut, from 1994 until 2014. He was the Democratic nominee in 2006 for Governor of Connecticut, unsuccessfully challenging incumbent Republican Governor M. Jodi Rell. He was also the named defendant in the landmark 2009 U.S. Supreme Court case of Ricci v. DeStefano. John DeStefano is the son of a New Haven police officer. John and his wife Kathy DeStefano met at the University of Connecticut as undergraduates, where he also earned a Masters in Public Administration. Kathy DeStefano is a first grade teacher in West Haven, Connecticut, and they are the parents of two adult sons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Bysiewicz</span> American politician (born 1961)

Susan Bysiewicz is an American politician and attorney who has served as the 109th lieutenant governor of Connecticut since 2019. She previously served as the 72nd secretary of the state of Connecticut from 1999 to 2011 and a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1993 to 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Action Network</span> Civil rights organization

The National Action Network (NAN) is an American not-for-profit, civil-rights organization founded by the Reverend Al Sharpton in New York City, New York, in early 1991. In a 2016 profile, Vanity Fair called Sharpton "arguably the country's most influential civil rights leader".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dannel Malloy</span> American politician (born 1955)

Dannel Patrick Malloy is an American politician who served as the 88th governor of Connecticut from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he chaired the Democratic Governors Association from 2016 to 2017. In July 2019, he began his tenure as the Chancellor of the University of Maine System.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2006 United States Senate election in Connecticut</span>

The 2006 United States Senate election in Connecticut was held November 7, 2006. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman won his fourth and final term in the Senate, under the Connecticut for Lieberman party banner. Lieberman originally ran as a Democrat, but lost the August 8 Democratic primary to former Greenwich selectman, businessman, and future Connecticut governor Ned Lamont. Lieberman had been seen as vulnerable to a primary challenge due to his conservative positions and support for the Iraq War, and Lamont ran as an antiwar challenger, receiving support from the left of the party. The Republicans nominated Alan Schlesinger, the former mayor of Derby, whose campaign was marred by allegations of inappropriate gambling activities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The First Cathedral</span> Church in Connecticut, United States

The First Cathedral, originally known as First Baptist Church, is a Black Baptist congregation in Hartford, Connecticut.

Michael P. Lawlor is an American politician, criminal justice professor, and lawyer from Connecticut. A Democrat, he served as a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1987 to 2011, representing the 99th district in East Haven. Lawlor resigned from the legislature on January 4, 2011 to serve in Dan Malloy's administration as undersecretary for criminal justice policy and planning at the Office of Policy and Management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2010 Connecticut gubernatorial election</span>

The 2010 Connecticut gubernatorial election took place on November 2, 2010, to elect the 88th Governor of Connecticut. Incumbent Republican Governor Jodi Rell had announced in a press conference in Hartford on November 9, 2009, that she would not seek re-election in 2010. The sites Cook Political Report and CQ Politics both rated the election as a toss-up. This was the first open seat gubernatorial election in the state since 1994. As of 2025, this is the last time the Governor's office in Connecticut changed partisan control.

Ricci v. DeStefano, 557 U.S. 557 (2009), is a United States labor law case of the United States Supreme Court on unlawful discrimination through disparate impact under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juan Figueroa (activist)</span> American activist

Juan A. Figueroa is an American consultant and political activist. He is a principal with Helene Figueroa at Soltaino Consultants, a strategic planning, applied research, advocacy and health philanthropy nonprofit consulting firm recognized for authoring an in-depth study on the health status of immigrants and refugees in the U.S. state of Missouri (2019–present).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Baptist Convention, USA</span> American Christian denomination

The National Baptist Convention, USA, incorporated as the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., and more commonly known as the National Baptist Convention, is a Baptist Christian denomination headquartered at the Baptist World Center in Nashville, Tennessee and affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance. It is also one of the largest predominantly and traditionally African American churches in the United States, and was the second largest Baptist denomination in the world in 2016.

The Phoenix Society is a black fraternal organization of firefighters in the Hartford (Connecticut) Fire Department. The organization was founded in 1965.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lubbie Harper Jr.</span> American judge (born 1942)

Lubbie Harper Jr. is an American lawyer and judge who was the third African American to become a justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, serving from 2011 through 2012. While seconded to the court in 2008, he cast the deciding vote in Kerrigan v. Commissioner of Public Health, a ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in Connecticut. Harper also served as a justice on the Connecticut Superior Court (1997–2005) and on the Connecticut Appellate Court (2005–2011).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward E. Bradley</span>

Edward Elias Bradley was the twenty eighth Adjutant General of the State of Connecticut. Bradley served as president of the Boston Buckboard and Carriage Company. He also headed the News Publishing Company. Bradley during 1901 to 1903 was the president of the New Haven Chamber of Commerce. He was commissioner of the public parks of New Haven from 1888 to 1901, and in 1910 became the president of the parks commission. Bradley was president of the Governor’s staff Association of Connecticut from 1903 to 1911. Bradley was president of the Defender Monument Association, which raised funds for the defenders monument to commemorate the successful defense of the West River. He was also the president of the Young’s Men Institute. In 1883, Bradley represented the town of Orange, Connecticut in the general assembly. Bradley was a Democrat and introduced and advocated the constitutional amendment for biennial sessions of the Legislature, which was accepted. He was the director of New Haven National Bank and was the director of Quinnipiac Fire Insurance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2018 Connecticut gubernatorial election</span>

The 2018 Connecticut gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 2018, to elect the next governor and lieutenant governor of Connecticut, concurrently with the election of Connecticut's Class I U.S. Senate seat, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states, elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various state and local elections. This race's Democratic margin of victory was the closest to the national average of 3.1 points.

L. Ronald Durham is an American civil rights activist, pastor and a Baptist minister. He has been a pastor at First Baptist Church in Anderson, New Jersey, First Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, and Greater Friendship Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Florida. He also helped organize the local chapter of the local National Action Network in Daytona Beach, and has been in ministry for over fifty years.

Adrianne Baughns-Wallace was a television journalist, the first African-American television anchor in New England, and a member of the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame.

References

  1. ↑ "Bio: Boise Kimber", Connecticut Baptist Convention
  2. ↑ Josef Goodman, "Master of the City: How Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. Ruled New Haven", Huffington Post
  3. ↑ , C-Span
  4. ↑ "New Haven Fire Panel Chairman Steps Down", Hartford Courant, 13 June 2002
  5. ↑ "Sharpton urges black voters to exercise their votes"
  6. ↑ National Baptist Convention presidential candidates tout platforms for 2014 election in New Orleans, New Orleans Picayune, November 2013
  7. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2014-03-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. ↑ "Justice for Trayvon rally set for Saturday in New Haven", New Haven Register-Citizen
  9. ↑ "Sharpton: We must limit access to high-powered weapons", BET News, 19 December 2012
  10. ↑ , NBC News, 19 December 2012
  11. ↑ "Loan Agency Chief And Local Announce New Urban Church Construction Loan Program", Hartford Courant, 20 February 2014
  12. ↑ "Fast-Growing, Ticketing-Software Company Provides Opportunity To Job Seekers", Hartford Courant, 08 February 2014
  13. ↑ "Boise Kimber receives national award", National Action Network
  14. ↑ Camp, Ken (2025-01-15). "National Baptists' new president seeks to be inclusive". Baptist Standard. Retrieved 2025-01-15.
  15. ↑ Ricci v. DeStefano, a United States Supreme Court decision.
  16. ↑ Emily Bazelon, "Ricci's Competing Story Lines", Slate magazine , June 29, 2009.
  17. ↑ "Grace Church Websites launches free websites for Greater New Haven churches, nonprofit organization". New Haven Register. September 2016.
  18. ↑ "Bridging the digital divide, company gives churches free websites". Religion News Service. 30 November 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.