(RNS) — John M. Perkins, an influential Baptist author, Bible teacher and longtime racial reconciliation advocate, died Friday (March 13). He was 95.
Perkins died surrounded by his wife and family, they announced on social media Friday. On March 4, his daughters, Priscilla and Elizabeth Perkins, co-presidents of the John and Vera Mae Perkins Foundation based in Jackson, said he was under hospice care.
A civil rights veteran, pastor and co-founder of the Christian Community Development Association, Perkins was known for his dedication to a collaborative approach to ministry.
The Rev. Barbara Williams-Skinner, co-founder of the Skinner Leadership Institute, a Black church civic engagement group, knew Perkins for decades. She said he helped her develop multiracial networks, after she met him through her late husband, Tom Skinner, who Perkins befriended when Skinner developed a ministry in Harlem, New York.
“John Perkins is probably one of the true unsung heroes in America — not in Black America, not in the church community, but in America,” she said in a 2023 interview. “He’s really done more to break down racial barriers and walls than almost any other person we know. We hear of Dr. King, we hear of others like John Lewis, but he lived the gospel of loving your neighbor …