Methodist civil rights leader William Bobby McClain dies at 82
(Photo courtesy of Wesley Theological Seminary)
William Bobby McClain, a longtime leader in the United Methodist Church and the civil rights movement, died November 18 at age 82.
McClain began preaching as a teenager in his hometown of Gadsden, Alabama. He met Martin Luther King Jr. in Montgomery, Alabama, according to a statement from Wesley Theological Seminary, where McClain taught preaching and worship for 34 years.
He returned to Alabama in 1962 after earning his bachelor’s degree from Clark College in Atlanta and his master’s from Boston University School of Theology. There, he worked with King and the civil rights movement while pastoring Haven Chapel Methodist Church in Anniston, Alabama.
