Contact:
LaChauna Sumpter
Development and Public Relations
919-546-8269
lsumpter@shawu.edu

 
For Immediate Release

Internationally Renowned Pastor to Speak at Shaw University Baccalaureate Service
Raleigh, NC – (May 5, 2004) – Shaw University will host its annual Baccalaureate Service, for its Spring 2004 graduates on Friday, May 7th at 6 p.m. in the Thomas J. Boyd Chapel. The speaker for the service is the Reverend Dr. Charles G. Adams, the pastor of Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit Michigan, since 1969. He was invited to speak before the United Nations on South African apartheid, the World Congress of the Baptist World Alliance in Seoul, Korea, and at the Seventh General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Canberra, Australia. As the chairman of the Ecumenical Urban Strategy Committee, Reverend Adams presented the new ecumenical strategy at the White House to former United States President Bill Clinton. Adams was later invited by President Clinton to travel to Jordan to witness the signing of the Peace Accord between Jordan and Israel.

Dr. Adams attended Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. He graduated with honors from the University of Michigan and Harvard University. He became a doctoral fellow at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Adams has been awarded 10 honorary doctorate degrees from several schools including Morehouse College, Dillard University, Morris College, and the University of Michigan.

Ebony Magazine named Adams as one of America’s 15 Greatest Black Preachers. He was also named one of Ebony’s Top 100 Influential Black Americans. In 1993, Black Enterprise Magazine featured him on their cover story entitled, Economic Development in the Black Church.

Shaw University, founded in 1865, is the oldest historically Black institution in the South. Since 2003, the University has been under the leadership of Dr. Clarence G. Newsome. President Newsome’s leadership pursues the theme: “Strides to Excellence: Only the Best!”