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The 15 greatest black preachers
Ebony, Nov, 1993
In the most extensive media poll of its kind, 15 ministers were named America's greatest Black preachers .
Selected by EBONY's 100+ Most Influential Black Americans, former winners of the Greatest Black Preacher designation and religious scholars, the 15 honorees represent "in the highest degree the great Black pulpit art of passion, eloquence and wisdom."
Leading the balloting was the perennial preaching favorite, Gardner C. Taylor, who was followed by a first-time entry, Jeremiah Wright, and three veterans, Samuel D. Proctor, Charles Adams and Otis Moss, and another first-time selection, H. Beecher Hicks. Although no woman received enough votes to crack the magic 15, several women were nominated. The leading woman nominee was the Rev. Prathia Hall Wynn, pastor of Philadelphia's Mt. Sharon Baptist Church.
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Three of the 15 top preachers, including one from Harlem and one from Brooklyn, come from New York City. Two each are from Detroit, Dallas and Washington, D.C. Six other cities -- Chicago, Cleveland, Atlanta, Oakland, Columbia, S.C., and Durham, N.C. -- contributed one each. Eleven ministers appeared on the 1984 list of Greatest Preachers. Cited for the first time, along with Wright and Hicks, are Wyatt Tee Walker and J. Alfred Smith. Since only a handful of votes separated some nominees, all nominees with substantial support are listed in the Roll of Great Preachers (Page 158).
Almost all respondents said in submitting their lists that there are so many great Black preachers that it is impossible to choose a mere 15. "As a matter of fact," one respondent said, "on any given Sunday, depending on the mood and the occasion, almost any great Black preacher--and there are thousands of great Black preachers--could preach a great 15 sermon."
It is with that understanding and in that context that we present on the following pages 15 ministers who are indisputably among the greatest preachers, Black or White, in this land.
Experts And Leading Blacks Name Select Group Of Ministers
The Rev. GARDNER CALVIN TAYLOR, 75, pastor emeritus of Concord Baptist Church of Christ, Brooklyn, "stands in a category unto himself" and sets "the modern standard for poetic homiletical eloquence," Dean Clarence Newsome of the Howard University Divinity School said. President James Costen of the Interdenominational Theological Center said Dr. Taylor "stands alone" as "the president, dean, provost and master artisan of Black preaching...Hearing him preach gives one the impression that he has a direct pipeline to God. If I could only hear one sermon, it would be a Taylor sermon, it would be a Taylor sermon."
The Rev. SAMUEL DEWITT PROCTOR, 72, pastor emeritus of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church, and professor emeritus, Rutgers University, is a professor at United Theological Seminary and the Duke University Divinity School, Durham, N.C. "Brilliant, witty, engaging and a storyteller par excellence," he was cited for his "richness of experience and depth of insight into the human condition." Dr. Costen said "he handles a manuscript better than anyone known to me...He is to preaching what Bessie Smith was to the blues."
The Rev. JEREMIAH A. WRIGHT JR., 52, pastor, Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago, "represents," one respondent said, "the first of a new generation of African-American preachers who blend a Pentecostal flavor with social concerns in their pulpit discourse." A fellow preacher said, "He gives a contemporary, African-American, Afrocentric flavor to the traditional Black shout." A religious scholar said, "A Wright sermon is a four-course meal: spiritual, biblical, cultural, prophetic."
The Rev. CHARLES G. ADAMS, 56, senior minister, Hartford Memorial Baptist Church, Detroit, is, one respondent said, "America's most unique preacher," an essayist who reads from a manuscript and makes people weep and shout. The Harvard-trained preacher has been called "the Harvard Whooper." He "reads from a manuscript," a fellow minister said, "but in a way that does not depreciate the art form." Another minister said he has an electrifying style and "the unusual gift of setting a manuscript on fire."
The Rev. OTIS MOSS JR., 58, senior minister, Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, Cleveland, is, a religious scholar said, "a preacher's preacher, eloquent, profound, mesmerizing and deeply spiritual." He added: "He peels away the layers of meaning that hide the central core of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: love, liberation and justice." Another respondent said, "He engages in holistic preaching where there is no dichotomy between the so-called |sacred' and |secular.'"
The Rev. H. BEECHER HICKS JR., 49, senior minister, Metropolitan Baptist Church, Washington, D.C., was praised for "exhaustive preparation, striking vocabulary and social compassion that give him special skills as a preacher." One expert said he has "excellent command of the language, is highly alliterative and often uses popular sayings as the launching pads for his sermons." The third-generation preacher has occupied pulpits from Asia to South Africa and is the author of three books, including Preaching Through A Storm.
