Voting Rights: Then and Now is an interview series with dynamic leaders from across the country on the subject of voting, and in particular, voting on Tuesday, Nov. 3rd in the 2020 United States presidential election. We at the AUC Woodruff Library want to encourage everyone to vote, but we also want to inform people about the history of Voting Rights in this country and host discussions about the specific reasons why it is important to vote.
The second interview of the series conducted by Clinton Fluker, PhD, Assistant Director, Engagement and Scholarship, Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library features Reverend Dr. Brandon Crowley, Senior Pastor, Myrtle Baptist Church.
The Reverend Dr. Brandon Thomas Crowley is an African American scholar in religion, theology, ecclesiology and queer theory. Dr. Crowley earned a PhD in Theology and Society and a Master of Sacred Theology from Boston University. His dissertation entitled “Inclusive Black Congregations and Black Ecclesial Queering” constructed a methodology to intentionally disrupt and dismantle oppressive forms of ecclesial and theological normalcy within Black churches. He also earned a Master of Divinity from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Religion from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.
Since 2009, Dr. Crowley has served as the senior pastor of a thriving predominantly African-American suburban congregation in West Newton, Massachusetts, the Historic Myrtle Baptist Church. The congregation traces its founding back to 1874 when a formerly enslaved preacher, the Reverend Edmund Kelley, organized the church in response to the discrimination that Black christians faced in northern white churches.
Dr. Crowley was ordained in the Progressive National Baptist Convention of America, Inc. and in 2010, he was honored by his alma mater as the youngest inductee into the prestigious Morehouse College Board of Preachers. He has written for the African American Lectionary and presently Dr. Crowley is serving as an instructor in Ministry Studies at Harvard Divinity School and formerly he served as an adjunct professor in The History of Christianity at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago, Illinois. As a religious leader in the Boston Metropolitan area, Dr. Crowley is committed to creatively and effectively addressing social and political issues like policing, affordable housing, and the intersectionality of needs amongst marginalized subgroups living in America.
For more information about The AUC Woodruff Library and our special programing related to Voting Rights please visit our digital exhibit: Voice Your Vote: The History of African Americans and the Right to Vote curated by the AUC GLAM Center for Collaborative Teaching and Learning along with the Archives Research Center. Please continue to look for updates on future programing throughout the month of October 2020 on the Library’s main website: www.auctr.edu.