John Perkins remembered as influential civil rights-era minister in Jackson

John Perkins, a civil rights-era activist and evangelical minister who led ministries in Jackson, Mississippi, was remembered this week for decades of community work and global influence, the Magnolia Tribune reported.

The Tribune described Perkins as “incomparable” and “one of a kind,” and noted that people from around the world came to Jackson to learn ministry methods from him and his organizations, the paper said.

According to commemorations cited by the Tribune and an interview in the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center Archives, Perkins was born into a family of sharecroppers in segregated Mississippi. The accounts say his mother died when he was 7 months old, his father left soon after, and his grandmother and extended family raised him. His older brother, Clyde, was killed by a police officer, and Perkins later moved to California, where he learned a trade and started a family.

The Tribune and the Wheaton archives say Perkins became a Christian after his son Spencer invited him to Sunday school. He returned to Mississippi, where he was nearly beaten in the Rankin County jail during the civil rights era, an incident for which he never received justice in his home state, the sources reported. Perkins and his wife, Vera Mae, later led Bible studies and community enterprises in Jackson.

The Tribune noted that Perkins received 19 honorary doctoral degrees, served on many evangelical boards, and wrote several books, including “Let Justice Roll Down,” which recounts his near-fatal jail beating. On a local WAPT panel recalled by the Tribune, Perkins said, “It’s my fault,” taking personal responsibility for failing to intercept young people before they turned to crime. Colleagues and authors remembered his unpredictability and moral leadership, the paper reported, and said he spent decades living and ministering in Jackson, where he died.

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