THE REV. DR. HERBERT D. DAUGHTRY

The Rev. Dr. Herbert Daughtry hails from a family of five generations of Black church leaders. As national presiding minister of the House of the Lord Churches, chairman emeritus of the National Black United Front and president of the African People’s Christian Organization, he has risen to a position of national and international acclaim and responsibility. Rev. Daughtry’s more than 46 years of involvement in community and church service has earned him the title, “The People’s Pastor.”

Active in the struggle for integration in the 1950s and community control of schools in the late 1960s, Rev. Daughtry has been involved in protest actions in cooperation with Brooklyn CORE and Operation Breadbasket, the economic arm of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). During this period, in addition to serving as co-chairman of Ministers Against Narcotics, he also served as vice chairperson of the board of directors of Bedford Stuyvesant Youth in Action and executive vice chair of Operation Breadbasket’s Metropolitan New York Chapter.

In the field of religion, he has served in various capacities with the World Council of Churches; has studied and done research at the Theological Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland; and has been the preacher in residence at the Interdenominational Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia. Rev. Daughtry has also lectured at Harvard University School of Divinity and at both Union and New York Theological Seminaries in New York City. Additionally, he was one of the principal lecturers at the 150th anniversary of the Virginia Theological Seminary and his lecture, “A Theology of Black Liberation: the Who, What and How,” was published in the school’s journal.

Rev. Daughtry is a prolific author. His book, No Monopoly on Suffering: Blacks and Jews in Crown Heights and Elsewhere, published by Africa World Press in 1997 with a foreword by Dr. Cornel West, gives a chronology of the building of a movement in Brooklyn which can serve as a guide for the empowerment of any people. His other books include My Beloved Community, published by Africa World Press, Effectual Prayer and Dear 2pac: Letters to a Son, published by Seaburn Press. Other publications to his credit include “Jesus Christ: African in Origin, Revolutionary and Redeeming in Action,” “South African Reader,” “Seize the Future,” “From Magnificence to Wretchedness: The Sad Saga of Black Humanity,” “Inside the Storm: A Report on the Uprising in Crown Heights,” and another work on Tupac Shakur – who joined his congregation at the early age of 11 – entitled, “A Seed Planted in Stone: The Life and Times of Tupac Shakur.”

In 1997 as a result of the unprovoked killing of 15-year-old Randolph Evans by a New York City police officer, Rev. Daughtry, became a major force in organizing the Coalition of Concerned Leaders and Citizens to Save our Youth; the group was instrumental in using economic boycotts to win jobs and services for Blacks from merchants in downtown Brooklyn. The effort resulted in the establishment of the Randolph Evans Memorial Scholarship Fund, the Randolph Evans Memorial Crisis Fund and numerous other initiatives. In June 1980 he played a major role in organizing the National Black United Front, a progressive Pan African organization, and was elected its first national chairman. In 1982 he initiated the founding of the African People’s Christian Organization (A.P.C.O.), with the express purpose of building an African Christian movement through emphasizing Africanness and Biblical Christianity in the context of struggle and self determination.

Rev. Daughtry is the past chairperson of the New York Citywide African American Clergy Council; the African American Clergy and Elected Officials; and the Association of Brooklyn Clergy for Community Development, which was responsible for the building and renovation of more than 500 units of housing in Brooklyn.

During the 1984 presidential campaign Rev. Daughtry served as special assistant and confidante to the Rev. Jesse Jackson and was a member of Jackson’s National Campaign Committee. In 1984 he accompanied Rev. Jackson and Roman Catholic Bishop Emerson Moore on a visit to Rome where, in addition to meeting with the prime minister and the American ambassador, they met with the Pope and encouraged the Vatican to make a consistent stand on human rights in South Africa. Subsequent to this they visited London and Canterbury where they met with the Archbishop of the Church of England.

For more than three decades Rev. Daughtry was a prominent participant in African liberation struggles, particularly those in Zimbabwe (formerly Southern Rhodesia), Mozambique, Angola, Namibia and South Africa. In 1991 he was a member of New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins’ delegation to South Africa where they met with Nelson and Winnie Mandela, Oliver and Adelaide Tambo and other prominent South African leaders.

Rev. Daughtry has also involved himself in the struggle for human rights and self determination in the Caribbean, especially Jamaica, Trinidad and Grenada. He maintained a friendship with Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop until his assassination in 1983.

In the most recent series of cases involving the police abuse of power, Amadou Diallo, Abner Louima, Patrick Dorismond and Dante Johnson, and with racial profiling, Rev. Daughtry has continued to be on the case.

Among the first to warn of the danger of AIDS, he is a founding member of the Black Leadership Commission on AIDS. In addition, he is founder of the Alonzo Daughtry Family Life Services, Inc. which has served the needs of the community through various programs including Project Enlightenment, an AIDS education program and Families of Victims Against Violence (F.O.V.A.V.). The Alonzo A. Daughtry Memorial Day Care Center, Inc. provides early childhood programming following the motto, “Nurturing and Educating the Leaders of Tomorrow.”

Rev. Daughtry was instrumental in the formation of the New York Yankees Community Council to foster better relations with Bronx community. He also served for five years as unofficial chaplain of the New York Jets football team and as a mentor to and president of the Mo Better Jaguars Football Team, whose Midgets won the national championship in the Pop Warner League in Orlando, Florida in 2001.

In March 2003 Rev. Daughtry helped organize and led a multi-faith, multiracial delegation to Iraq in one last desperate appeal for peace. Before departure they met representatives from the Iraqi Mission, United Nations and the State Department.

Rev. Daughtry currently is one of a handful of community leaders negotiating with Forest City Ratner Companies, owned by developer Bruce Ratner, who plans to bring a 19,000 seat arena to Brooklyn to house his Nets NBA team. The pastor is working to put together a legally-binding Community Benefits Agreement that would bring a wide range of services to the area.

He has traveled and lectured in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Caribbean. Rev. Daughtry has spoken to countless community and civic associations and lectured at numerous high schools, colleges and universities. On two occasions he spoke at United Nations subcommittees about South African apartheid, Cuba, the Middle East and the state of U.S. civil rights. He has been interviewed extensively on radio and television and has been the subject of numerous newspapers and magazines articles.

Rev. Daughtry served on the Credentials Committee for the 2004 Democratic National Convention, helping to ensure that no injustices occurred and that delegates were properly seated.

The pastor appeared in Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues as the minister who married Bleak Gilliam (Denzel Washington) and (Joie Lee).

Among the numerous citations and awards Rev. Daughtry has received are honorary doctorate degrees from Seton Hall University (1980) and the State University of New York, College of Old Westbury (1992). Additionally, he has received Citations and Resolutions from the U.S. Congress and New York State Legislature honoring him for his many years of service to humanity. During the Clinton administration he was among a select group of religious leaders from across the United States to be invited to meet with the president at periodic breakfasts at the White House.

Rev. Daughtry has been the host and principal speaker for the past 34 years on a weekly radio program aired Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m. on New York City’s WWRL-AM. He has been married to Dr. Karen Smith Daughtry for 42 years and is the father of three daughters, Leah Denyatta, Sharon D’Boya and Dawnique Dakeba, and one son, Herbert Jr., all college graduates. The Daughtrys have two grandsons, Lorenzo Alexander Daughtry Chambers and Herbert Daniel Daughtry III.