John M. Perkins, advocate for racial reconciliation, dies

Rev. John M. Perkins, an evangelical leader and influential civil rights activist known for urging racial reconciliation, died Friday. One of his children, V. Elizabeth Perkins, said her father passed away while surrounded by family at his home in Jackson, Miss. He was 95 years old. To the world, he was a voice for justice, reconciliation, and the gospel of Jesus Christ, Elizabeth said. “But to me, he was Daddy,” she added.

Perkins, who authored more than a dozen books, created a network of ministries that built up communities across the country. He was also a leading voice for fostering social justice. WORLD Magazine named him its 2020 “Daniel of the Year” for his refusal to hate during times of intense racial unrest. Charles Marsh, a historian and professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia, called Perkins the most influential African American Christian leader since Martin Luther King Jr. 

Perkins’ funeral service is set for March 21 in Jackson and will be available to watch by livestream.

What was Perkins’ early life like? He was born in 1930 in Jim Crow-era Mississippi. He fled to California at 16 years old after a police officer killed his older brother. In 1957, Perkins became a Christian after his toddler came home from Sunday school classes singing “Jesus Loves the Little Children.” He was ordained as a Baptist minister a year later.

He returned to Mississippi in 1960 and started several ministries to reach local communities and became engaged in civil rights movements, leading voter registration drives and boycotts. In 1970, while on the way to bail out boycotters from jail in Mississippi, police officers arrested Perkins and brutally beat him. The violence nearly killed him. Two-thirds of his stomach had to be removed.

He ultimately forgave his assailants. In his 1976 book, Let Justice Roll Down, he wrote, “When I saw what hate had done to them, I couldn’t hate back. I could only pity them. I didn’t ever want hate to do to me what it had already done to those men.”

What else was Perkins known for? In the 1980s, he established the Christian Community Development Association, a network of evangelical congregations and organizations that work in urban settings. He also served on the board of directors of more than a dozen nonprofits, including World Vision, Prison Fellowship, National Association of Evangelicals, and Spring Arbor University. While Perkins dropped out of school in the third grade, he received 19 honorary doctorate degrees, his daughter said.

Dig deeper: Read Marvin Olasky’s report on when WORLD named Perkins the 2020 Daniel of the Year.