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Otis Moss Jr. (born February 26, 1935) is an American pastor, theologian, speaker, author, and activist. Moss is well known for his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement and his friendship with both Martin Luther King Jr. and Martin Luther King Sr. [1] He is also the father of Otis Moss III, the current pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. [2]
Moss, who is of African American heritage, was born in and raised in LaGrange, Georgia, the fourth of five children. [3] After being orphaned at 16 he earned his B.A. at Morehouse College in 1956, before earning his Master of Divinity from the Morehouse School of Religion in 1959. At Morehouse Moss was taught and mentored by Benjamin Mays, who was also a mentor to Martin Luther King Jr. While at Morehouse Moss helped lead sit-ins and other activities to protest segregation. [4] He completed further graduate coursework at the Interdenominational Theological Center from 1960 to 1961. [5] He also earned a Doctor of Ministry from United Theological Seminary in 1990, where he was taught by Samuel DeWitt Proctor and became friends with Jeremiah Wright, pastor of the famous Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago and pastor of Barack Obama. [6] Moss's son, Otis Moss III, would later take over as senior pastor for Wright after he was caught up in a controversy during the 2008 presidential election over the content of sermons he gave during the time in which Barack Obama attended the church. [7]
Moss became the pastor of Mount Olive Baptist Church in LaGrange in 1954, pastoring the church until 1961. From 1956 to 1959 he simultaneously served as the senior pastor at both Mount Olive and Providence Baptist Church in Atlanta. [5] He then moved to pastor Mount Zion Baptist Church in Lockland, Ohio from 1961 to 1975. While at the church he was regional director of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, leading several campaigns to fight various forms of discrimination and segregation. He also participated in the Selma, Alabama civil rights march with King, whom he became close friends with. King also married Moss and his wife. [4] [8] In 1971 he spent one year away from the church to co-pastor Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta with Martin Luther King Sr. [9] After leaving Mount Zion Baptist Church in 1975 he left to pastor the Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland, which was then the largest black church in the state of Ohio. He led the church for 33 years before retiring in 2008. [10] During his time at the church, besides continuing to be a sought-after speaker and influential figure in social justice movements, he was an advisor to President Jimmy Carter and also befriended such figures as Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Jesse Jackson. [4] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] In 1997 Moss partnered with University Hospitals to create the Otis Moss Jr. Medical Center. [17] He was also repeatedly named one of American's most influential black preachers by Ebony Magazine. [18]
Moss has received dozens of honors and awards. He has received the Candle in Religion Award from Morehouse College, the Role of Model of the Year Award from the National Institute for Responsible Fatherhood and Family development, a Leadership Award from the American Jewish Committee, the Human Relations Award from Bethune-Cookman University, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cleveland Clinic. [3] [15] [19] [20]
Moss has long-been a sought-after speaker, lecturing at hundreds of colleges and churches throughout the world, including at the Oxford Roundtable at Oxford University and in the Lyman Beecher Lecture Series at Yale University, and the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. [19] [21] He has also spoken in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Jordan, Israel, and South Africa. [3]
Moss has been married to his wife, Edwina, for over fifty years and has three children, Kevin, Daphne (deceased), and Otis III. [22]
Morehouse College is a private historically Black, men's, liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia. Anchored by its main campus of 61 acres (25 ha) near Downtown Atlanta, the college has a variety of residential dorms and academic buildings east of Ashview Heights. Along with Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University, and the Morehouse School of Medicine, the college is a member of the Atlanta University Center consortium.
Joseph Echols Lowery was an American minister in the United Methodist Church and leader in the civil rights movement. He founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King Jr. and others, serving as its vice president, later chairman of the board, and its third president from 1977 to 1997. Lowery participated in most of the major activities of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, and continued his civil rights work into the 21st century. He was called the "Dean of the Civil Rights Movement."
Claude William Black Jr. was an American Baptist minister and political figure. Black was born in San Antonio, Texas, which was segregated at the time. Black's parents are Claude Sr., who served as the Vice President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and Cora Black, who was a housewife.
United Theological Seminary is a United Methodist seminary in Trotwood, Ohio. Founded in 1871 by Milton Wright, the father of the Wright brothers, it was originally sponsored by the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. In 1946, members of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ merged with the Evangelical Church to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church, with which the seminary then became affiliated. When that denomination merged with The Methodist Church in 1968, United Theological Seminary became one of the thirteen seminaries affiliated with the new United Methodist Church (UMC).
Jeremiah Alvesta Wright Jr. is a pastor emeritus of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, a congregation he led for 36 years, during which its membership grew to over 8,000 parishioners. Following retirement, his beliefs and preaching were scrutinized when segments of his sermons about terrorist attacks on the United States and government dishonesty were publicized in connection with the 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama.
Alfred Daniel Williams King was an American Baptist minister and civil rights activist. He was the younger brother of Martin Luther King Jr. and the younger son of Martin Luther King Sr.
Trinity United Church of Christ is a predominantly African-American megachurch with more than 8,500 members. It is located in the Washington Heights community on the South Side of Chicago. It is the largest church affiliated with the United Church of Christ, a predominantly white Christian denomination with roots in Congregationalism, which historically branched from early American Puritanism.
Otis Moss III is the pastor of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. He espouses black theology and speaks about reaching inner-city black youth.
King-Lincoln Bronzeville is a historically African American neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio. Originally known as Bronzeville by the residents of the community, it was renamed the King-Lincoln District by Mayor Michael B. Coleman's administration to highlight the historical significance of the district's King Arts Complex and Lincoln Theatre, amid collaborations with investors and developers to revitalize the neighborhood.
The sermons and speeches of Martin Luther King Jr., comprise an extensive catalog of American writing and oratory – some of which are internationally well-known, while others remain unheralded and await rediscovery.
Since 1937, the United States presidential inauguration has included one or more prayers given by members of the clergy. Since 1933 an associated prayer service either public or private attended by the president-elect has often taken place on the morning of the day. At times a major public or broadcast prayer service takes place after the main ceremony most recently on the next day.
Edward Earl Cleveland was an American writer, civil rights advocate and evangelist of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
The first memorial service following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, took place the following day at the R.S. Lewis Funeral Home in Memphis, Tennessee. This was followed by two funeral services on April 9, 1968, in Atlanta, Georgia, the first held for family and close friends at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King and his father had both served as senior pastors, followed by a three-mile procession to Morehouse College, King's alma mater, for a public service.
Samuel Rodriguez Jr. is an American Evangelical Christian leader born to Puerto Rican parents in the United States. He is a pastor, movie producer, author, civil rights activist and television personality. He is the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.
Ebenezer Baptist Church is a Baptist megachurch located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with the Progressive National Baptist Convention and American Baptist Churches USA. It was the church where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was co-pastor from 1960 until his assassination in 1968, the location of the funerals of both Dr. King and, in its later expanded sanctuary, congressman John Lewis, and the church for which United States Senator Raphael Warnock has been pastor since 2005. Its historic church building and expanded sanctuary building are located in the historic area designated as the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park.
Amos Cleophilus Brown is an African American pastor and civil rights activist. He is the president of the San Francisco branch of the NAACP, and has been the pastor of the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco since 1976. Brown was one of only eight students who took the only college class ever taught by Martin Luther King Jr. He serves on the board of the California Reparations Task Force.
Samuel Berry McKinney was an American Christian pastor and Civil Rights leader. He was the pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church in Seattle for four decades. He attended the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965, and he served on the Seattle Human Rights Commission.
Josephus Pius Barbour was an American Baptist pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Chester, Pennsylvania who served as an executive director of the National Baptist Association and editor of the National Baptist Voice publication. He was the first African American to graduate from Crozer Theological Seminary in 1937, and later mentored a teenaged Martin Luther King Jr., when King was a student there.
Thomas Kilgore Jr. was a prominent clergyman, community leader, and human rights activist. He helped organize the March on Washington.
Joan Brown Campbell is an American Christian minister and ecumenical leader. She has standing as an ordained minister in both the Christian Church and the American Baptist Church. In 1991, she became the first ordained woman to serve as the general secretary for the National Council of Churches of Christ USA. During her career, she also served as the head of the US office for the World Council of Churches, and later, as director of the Religion Department for the Chataqua Institution. In both cases, she was the first woman to hold these roles.
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