Lyons, Henry 1942(?)—

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Henry Lyons 1942(?)—

Religious leader

In 1994 Henry J. Lyons was elected president of the National Baptist Convention USA, the largest African American religious organization in the country. As head of its 8.2 million members, Lyons oversees what is perhaps the most powerful and influential institution in the African American community. To Lyons, who saw his new leadership role as a calling, it was time to harness the spirituality of that community to redress some of its setbacks. “We’ve got to lift the name of Jesus; yes, that’s No. 1, “Lyons told Ebony writer Lisa C. Jones. “But it’s also got to be shown that we’re about the business of turning our communities around. We’re going to have to take back our streets and our neighborhoods.”

Destined to Lead

Lyons was born in the early 1940s in Gainesville, Florida. An only child, he lived behind a small Baptist church and his baptism took place in a nearby pond. When he was twelve-years-old, his pastor prophesied that he would one day lead the Baptists. “I had no idea what he was talking about,” he recalled in Ebony. But later, while he was a divinity student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, he received what he felt was a direct sign from God, an echo of his pastor’s earlier prediction, and was guided to a particular passage in the Bible. Toward the end of his undergraduate studies, Lyons obtained his first post as head of a religious community at Abyssinia Baptist Church in Brunswick, Georgia. He later headed Macedonia Baptist Church in Atlanta, then moved to Ohio for further study. There, at the Cincinnati Baptist College, he served as an academic dean while working on his doctorate in divinity. By the early 1970s he had further supplemented his education with yet another advanced degree, a Ph.D. in sacred theology from Jerusalem’s Hebrew Union University.

Near this time Lyons also wed his wife Deborah; together they would raise three children—Derrick, a Marine Corps sergeant, Stephanie, a teacher, and Vonda, a college student majoring in communications. For the large part of his career Lyons served as head of Bethel Metropolitan Baptist Church, in St. Petersburg, Florida. He also became active in the Florida General Baptist Convention, rising to hold its presidency in 1981, and

At a Glance

Bom c. 1942, in Gainesville, FL; married, c. 1972; wife’s name, Deborah; children: Derrick, Stephanie, Vonda. Education: Received undergraduate degree from Morehouse College; received D.Div. from Cincinnati Baptist College; Hebrew Union University, Ph.D. in sacred theology, 1972. Religion; Baptist.

Career: Abyssinia Baptist Church, Brunswick, GA, pastor, mid-1960s; Macedonia Baptist Church, Atlanta, GA, pastor, late 1960s; Cincinnati Baptist College, Cincinnati, OH, academic dean, late 1960s; Bethel Metropolitan Baptist Church, St. Petersburg, FL, pastor; Florida General Baptist Convention, St. Petersburg, president, 1981-; National Baptist Convention USA, Nashville, TN, president, 1994-.

Addresses: Office—National Baptist Convention USA, 1700 Baptist World Center Dr., Nashville, TN 37207.

also in the parent organization, the National Baptist Convention USA (NBCUSA) headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Eventually Lyons’s work as president of the Florida organization, which raised funds and constructed low-income housing units, garnered him a vice-presidency of the national organization. In 1994, the longtime president of the NBCUSA, Dr. T. J. Jemison, announced his retirement after two six-year terms, according to the limit imposed under the organization’s by-laws. Jemison had been only one of a handful of presidents of the Convention in its six decades of existence, and Lyons decided to run in the election to succeed him. He stressed a reform agenda in his bid for the presidency. “It was well-known that President Jemison held a tight rein on the financial purse of the multibillion dollar organization,” noted the Sacramento Observer. “During his campaign candidate Lyons insisted that the organizational delegates investigate the status of NBCUSA monies.”

Election Made Headlines

At their national convention in New Orleans in early September of 1994, Lyons won 3,545 votes, just a few hundred more than his nearest opponent. A month later, a faction of Alabama pastors-supporters of another candidate-filed a lawsuit that charged election fraud. The court injunction prevented Lyons from taking office and put a freeze on all church business at the national level. Detractors charged that some voting delegates had been prevented from casting their vote in the presidential balloting in New Orleans, and then presented 44 affidavits to Washington, DC’s Superior Court-where the NBCUSA is chartered-claiming election fraud. Later, some of those NBCUSA delegates told Judge Zenora Mitchell-Rankin that they had not signed the affidavits, and others admitted they were either ineligible to vote or were not even present in New Orleans. The judge ruled in favor of Lyons, lifted the injunction against church business, and ordered the Alabama faction to pay Lyons $150,000 in addition to his attorneys’ fees and court costs.

When Lyons finally took office with the court’s help, it fulfilled the prediction his pastor had made and his later prophetic experience when he was a student at Morehouse. “I received a clear mandate, orders, from God himself,” Lyons told Ebony writer Lisa C. Jones of that day. “He let me know I was to lead this organization. He led me to Isaiah 62:1 0, ’Go through the gates.. .gather out the stones.. .lift up standard for the people. “Those words burned in my heart. And then it all came into focus.”

Began Era of Reform

Upon assuming the reins of the NBCUSA, Lyons tackled a number of pressing financial problems, including a huge debt on the six-year-old Nashville headquarters. A large mortgage payment was immediately due, plus late fees and interest charges that had been accruing. Tradition in the organization dictated that the proceeds from his inaugural banquet-which could have hosted as many as 1,900 people-would go to Lyons; instead he declared that the monies raised would go directly back into the NBCUSA. He also flew coach class, a first for the president and a shock to his staff. In response, he asked them, “How in the world can you fly first class when the organization you represent is dead broke? We need some money, we need to realign ourselves financially, get on the good foot, then fly first class. Right now the ox is in the ditch,” the Philadelphia Tribune reported.

The NBCUSA’s new era of reform was matched by Lyons’s commitment to its more basic focus: addressing members’ spiritual welfare, and helping others in need. It sent several thousand dollars to help Rwandans in that country’s 1995 civil strife, and provided aid to several other impoverished African and Caribbean nations. Lyons also sought to improve conditions at home as well. He planned to open an NBCUSA office in Washington, DC, in order to focus on solving problems within the African American community; working on a national level on behalf of the 8.2 million African American members-over a fourth of the U.S. African American population-was of primary importance. Drug abuse, gang violence, and education were especial targets, and Lyons even announced a willingness to meet with gang leaders if necessary. “The gangs have become an entity in our community to be reckoned with,” Lyons told Ebony. “We have to talk to them and let [them] know that, unless things improve, our whole race is at stake.”

Hoped to Engender Great Change

Lyons also made a point of speaking out against affirmative action setbacks in Congress and the Supreme Court in 1995, and called for NBCUSA members to take part in a civil rights march in Birmingham, Alabama in September of that year. The action would be held in conjunction with the organization’s annual meeting there. He also voiced criticism over the handling of President Bill Clinton’s nomination of Dr. Henry Foster as Surgeon General, suggesting that race-not the physician’s prochoice stance-was the real issue. Lyons also took on the formidable Reverend Jesse Jackson in the media after Jackson asserted that Lyons had endorsed the Million Man March on Washington, DC scheduled for October of 1995. Lyons and another prominent Baptist leader decried Jackson’s use of their names, and asserted that they would not lend support to the march called for by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Such a prominent national profile has gained Lyons access to the White House, and First Lady Hilary Rodham Clinton was even photographed attending one of Lyons’s services at the Bethel Metropolitan Baptist Church, where he continues to preach. The national spotlight fails to distract Lyons from the goals he has set for the NBCUSA, however. “I see this as an opportunity, as a window to do something positive and to turn this whole business around for our people,” he told Ebony.