Progressive National Baptists elect new president

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.—The Progressive National Baptist Convention has elected an Oklahoma City pastor as its new president.

Major L. Jemison, pastor of St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, succeeds C. Mackey Daniels of Louisville. Jemison, who previously served as the denomination’s first vice president, was elected to a four-year term Aug. 8 during the annual meeting of the 2.5-million member Baptist group in St. Louis.

Jemison gave the keynote address at a Sept.3 banquet during the National Baptist Convention (USA)’s annual session in Philadelphia. In 1960, a dispute over ideology at a NBCUSA meeting in the same city prompted some members of the NBCUSA to break away and from the Progressive National Baptist Convention.