The Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, who fought poverty and racism and skillfully navigated New York’s power structure as pastor of Harlem's historic Abyssinian Baptist Church, died at age 73, the church announced.
NEW YORK — The Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, who fought poverty and racism and skillfully navigated New York’s power structure as pastor of Harlem's historic Abyssinian Baptist Church, died Friday at age 73, the church announced.
Earlier pastors at Abyssinian included Adam Clayton Powell Sr. and his son Adam Clayton Powell Jr., the first African American to be elected to Congress from New York.In 1995, Republican Gov. George Pataki appointed Butts to two state boards that controlled economic development grants to businesses. That same year, Buttsat Abyssinian, where the fatigues-wearing communist received a hero's welcome.
“The kind of conspiracies we saw in the past were real but they do not exist about these vaccines," Butts said last year in a reference to thethat left many Black people mistrustful of medical authorities. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called Butts “a force for moral clarity, a voice for his Harlem community, a counselor to so many of us in public service” and said she was proud to call him a friend.