John Porter

John Thomas Porter (born 1931; died February 15, 2006) was the pastor of 6th Avenue Baptist Church from 1962 to 2000 and a leader in the Civil Rights movement in Birmingham.

Porter grew up in Titusville. He attended Washington Elementary School and graduated from A. H. Parker High School in 1948.

Porter was serving as pastor of First Institutional Baptist Church of Hamtramck, Michigan when he answered the call from 6th Avenue Baptist. He was recommended for the vacancy left by the death of Goodgame by Martin Luther King, Jr. King also preached at Porter's installation.

Porter was active in the Civil Rights Movement with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He assisted in the SCLC's efforts in Albany, Georgia and was one of the leaders of the Birmingham Campaign, serving on the Central Committee.

On Palm Sunday, April 7, 1963, Porter and fellow ministers Nelson Smith and A. D. King led a group of 2,000 marchers to protest the jailing of marchers the day before. He was also one of four leaders of a mass march from Thurgood Colored Methodist Episcopal Church on Easter Sunday, April 14, and was arrested along with A. D. King, Smith and Frank Dukes.

In October 1967 he was arrested, along with Fred Shuttlesworth, T. L. Fisher and J. W. Hayes on contempt charges stemming from the 1963 demonstrations.

He was a state representative from 1974 to 1977 and a member of the state Board of Pardons and Parole from 1977 to 1989

Porter joined the Samford University Board of Trustees in 1991. He provided stories from his life to Paul Hemphill's memoir "Leaving Birmingham", published in 1993.

Porter's pulpit was assumed after his retirement in August 2000 by Al Sutton.

References

• King,Martin Luther Jr (August 22, 1962) Letter to C. G. Christian, Sr., Pulpit Committee, 6th Avenue Baptist Church. The King Center archives
• Hemphill, Paul (1993) Leaving Birmingham: Notes of a Native Son. New York: Viking Books ISBN 067084778X