Video Oral History
Bishop John H. Adams
Pastor, First AME Church 1962-68;
Central Area Civil Rights Committee; Central Area Motivation Program (CAMP)
Bishop John Hurst Adams grew up as the son of Reverend E.A. Adams in Columbia,
South Carolina. He attended Boston University for his theology degree
at the same time as Rev. Martin Luther King; was made president of Paul Quinn
College in Waco, Texas at age 26 in 1956; and moved to Seattle to serve as
pastor of its oldest and one of its most prestigious black churches, First
African Methodist Episcopal (AME), in 1962.
During his time in Seattle, from 1962 to 1968, Adams was a key spokesperson
for the African American movement for civil rights during its most intense
period. He chaired the Central Area Civil Rights Committee and co-founded
the country’s first war on poverty agency, the Central Area Motivation
Program. Along with NAACP leader Charles V. Johnson, Urban League
Director Ed Pratt, and CORE and later Model Cities Director Walter Hundley,
Adams participated in what he has called “an inner circle” of
local civil rights leaders whose coordinated leadership transformed Seattle’s
social movement politics. While in Seattle, the Seattle Chapter of
B’nai B’rith named him Man of the Year in 1964, and the Seattle
Urban League named him Man of the Year in 1965.
In 1968, Reverend Adams was moved by his Bishop to serve as pastor of
Grant AME Church in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. After 22
years as a pastor, he was made Bishop in 1972. He retired from active
service in the church in 2004, and currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
Bishop Adams shared his memories of Seattle’s Civil Rights Movement
in a videotaped interview conducted by Trevor Griffey and Janet Jones
on June 24th, 2005. To the right are streaming-video excerpts of
the interview.
Rev. John Adams and Dolly Adams meet with
Bishop Thomas Gill probably in 1964. Photo courtesy Catholic
Northwest Progress
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Video Oral Histories