John T. Porter, a civil rights leader and pastor emeritus of Sixth Avenue Baptist Church, Birmingham, in Birmingham Baptist Association, died Feb. 15. He was 74.
Before serving as pastor of the 5,000-member black church from 1962 until 2000, Porter became the pulpit associate for Martin Luther King Jr. at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery while a student at Alabama State University.
King preached at Porter’s installation service at Sixth Avenue Baptist in 1962. The next year, Porter helped lead pivotal civil rights demonstrations in downtown Birmingham. According to The Birmingham News, the statue in Birmingham’s Kelly Ingram Park of ministers kneeling is based on a photo of Porter, Nelson H. Smith Jr. and A.D. King that captured the three praying just before being arrested.
“During the days of the civil rights movement, John used his influence both practically and prudently,” said Rick Lance, executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions. “He will be remembered by his friends, family and other members of the faith family as a man of God and a genuine leader.”
In 1991, Samford University in Birmingham elected Porter to its board of trustees, becoming the first Alabama Baptist State Convention entity to name a minority to its board of trustees. Ten years later, the university gave him an honorary doctorate.
“Dr. Porter was a man of deep compassion and love for people. In personal and public life, he was a model of Christian character,” said Samford President Thomas E. Corts. “As a trustee of Samford University, he was among the finest, especially respected by his peers, offering insight that was always carefully considered.”
With Porter’s death, the Birmingham community “has lost a great champion, a guiding personality,” Corts added.
In between his time in Montgomery and Birmingham, Porter worked on a master of divinity degree at Morehouse College in Atlanta, during which time he served under Martin Luther King Sr., pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in that city. He later became pastor of First Institutional Baptist Church in Detroit before accepting the pastorate at Sixth Avenue Baptist.
Lance said Porter “served fruitfully and faithfully as a pastor” during his decades at the Birmingham church.
“He was a true gentleman who treated people in a Christlike fashion,” he said. (TAB)
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