He has been a prominent participant in African liberation struggles, particularly those in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia and South Africa. Daughtry is an outspoken critic of police abuse of power and has been involved in protests and community organizing in the cases of Randolph Evans, Amadou Diallo, Abner Louima, Patrick Dorismond and Dante Johnson.
He appealed for peace to U.S. officials and led a multi-faith, multi-racial delegation to Iraq in the final hours before the war and was one of the first members of clergy addressing the AIDS crisis. He has spoken out against police brutality and injustice in New York City and personally appealed to Pope John Paul II take a strong stand against South African apartheid.
Now, the Rev. Herbert Daughtry will be feted for his life’s work by a veritable Who’s Who of the Black community at a concert featuring performances by Grammy winning gospel artists Yolanda Adams and Donnie McClurkin. The event, celebrating 46 years of the “People’s Pastor’s” ministry, will take place at 8 p.m. at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Opera House on January 8.
Luminaries from the arts, media, politics, education and business, including thespian power couple Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, David Dinkins, Rev. Jesse Jackson, H. Carl McCall, Percy Sutton, Susan Taylor and Terrie Williams, have joined forces to pay tribute to the pastor for his life’s work. The event also marks the 70th anniversary of the House of the Lord Churches for which he serves as national presiding minister and pastor of its Brooklyn church.
The minister hails from a family of five generations of Black church leaders and has been active in civil and human rights issues spanning the globe for nearly five decades. In the 1950s he was active in the struggle for integration. In the 1960s he fought for community control of schools. Daughtry went on to serve as executive vice chair of Operation Breadbasket, the economic arm of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and to help found such groups as the Black United Front, Black Leadership Commission on AIDS and the New York Yankees Community Council. 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.
He has been a prominent participant in African liberation struggles, particularly those in Zimbabwe– formerly Southern Rhodesia–Mozambique, Angola, Namibia and South Africa. He has also involved himself in the struggle for human rights and self determination in the Caribbean nations of Jamaica, Trinidad and Grenada. Daughtry is an outspoken critic of police abuse of power and has been involved in protests and community organizing in the cases of Randolph Evans, Amadou Diallo, Abner Louima, Patrick Dorismond and Dante Johnson.
He is the author of four books, including No Monopoly on Suffering: Blacks and Jews in Crown Heights and Elsewhere, My Beloved Community Effectual Prayer and Dear 2pac: Letters to a Son, a work on Tupac Shakur – who joined his congregation at 11.
The pastor was featured in multi-platinum recording artist Jay-Z’s 99 Problems video. His church has a weekly broadcast on WWRL 1600 each Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Proceeds will benefit the church’s building fund and the Alonzo Daughtry Family Life Services, Inc., a 501(c)3 that Daughtry founded to provide a wide range of services to the community, including health, youth and rehabilitation programs. The group also runs a network of day care centers, which are directed by the minister’s wife of 42 years, Dr. Karen Smith Daughtry.
Tickets for the event range from $65 to $250 and can be purchased be contacting the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) box office in person or by calling 718-636-4100. The BAM Opera House is located at 30 Lafayette Avenue between Ashland Place and St. Felix Street and is within walking distance from the 2, 3, 4, 5, Q, N, R, M, G, B, D and C trains.
