National civil rights leader and United States black pastor who served as Dr. King Jr.'s Chief of Staff.
He became a pastor at the Gillfield Baptist Church, the second oldest black church in Petersburg, Virginia and one of the oldest in the nation, in 1953 after earning a degree.
He co-founded the Congress for Racial Equality and was an early board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
He married Theresa Ann Walker, and has four children and two grandchildren.
He helped organize and participated in the 1963 March on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I Have A Dream" speech.
