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10 notable Christian ministry leaders, influencers who died in 2024

By Michael Gryboski, Editor Twitter

William Lawson – May 14, 2024

The Rev. William Lawson, a civil rights activist and founder of the megachurch Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church of Houston, Texas, speaks during an interview in 2018.
The Rev. William Lawson, a civil rights activist and founder of the megachurch Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church of Houston, Texas, speaks during an interview in 2018. | YouTube/KPRC 2 Click2Houston

The Rev. William Lawson, a veteran civil rights activist and founding pastor of a historically African American megachurch in Texas, died two months shy of his 96th birthday.

A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Lawson became director of the Baptist Student Union and a professor at Texas Southern University during the 1960s. He also helped to launch the Afro-American Studies Program at the University of Houston.

Lawson was active in civil rights activism, and led the Houston chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference for over 30 years. He also founded Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church of Houston, which has a reported 15,000 members.

"In his nearly 96 years, Reverend Lawson has served as husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, as well as preacher, professor, and civil rights leader," Wheeler Avenue stated in a May announcement about his death. 

"But whatever title you may have used to describe him, it has been said many times that Reverend Bill Lawson was 'Houston's Pastor.'"

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