Three Things We’ll Remember About MLK’s Ally, the Late Rev. William Lawson

The people of Houston, Tx. are mourning the loss of one of its most beloved spiritual leaders. Reverend William Lawson passed away on Wednesday, May 14 at age 95. Along with leading his congregation at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, Lawson was a dedicated servant to the greater community of Houston, a staunch civil rights advocate, and a close friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was integral in helping desegregate the city, and continued to serve the community long after he stepped away from the pulpit.

In a 2018 interview with Houston’s NBC affiliate, Lawson described the legacy he hoped to leave behind.

“I simply hope I would have been faithful to what the gospel is,” he said. “And the gospel speaks of feeding the poor and clothing the naked. If I have been faithful to that, I’ll be glad to be perceived that way.”

Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church posted an announcement of Lawson’s passing on its website.

“He has completed his time of service here on earth and is now enjoying eternal rest,” the statement read.

Although he was born in St. Louis, Mo., William Lawson was lovingly referred to as “Houston’s Pastor.” He came to the city in the mid-1950s at age 27 to take a position as the director of the Baptist Student Union at Texas Southern University. While there, he also served as the school’s Chaplain.

In 1962, he founded Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston’s Third Ward, where he remained pastor for 42 years. Lawson started the church in his living room with only 13 members. But over time, he nurtured Wheeler Avenue Baptist into a thriving staple of the community that currently has over 12,000 members.

Lawson also reached out to religious leaders of other faiths across Houston. He worked so closely in the community with Rabbi Samuel Karff and Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza that the trio became known as The Three Amigos.

According to Lawson, his commitment to using his church for activism was inspired by Audrey, his wife of 62 years.

A social worker who worked closely with young people in Houston, Audrey Lawson made it her mission to ensure that Wheeler Avenue Baptist was an integral part of the community. She launched programming such as Boys and Girl Scout Troops, a preschool, and an infant care center at the church before she passed in 2015.

Rev. Lawson said Audrey told him he had a responsibility to the community beyond the pulpit.

“I thought of that church as basically a church where we would preach the gospel,” he said in an interview. “Audrey was the person who said, ‘You’re in a neighborhood that’s in great need and you can’t just preach the gospel.’”

Rev. Lawson was a key figure in Houston’s civil rights movement and played an important role in helping desegregate the city.

He worked tirelessly to establish resources to help some of the city’s most vulnerable, including constructing affordable housing for senior citizens and establishing a public defender program for those unable to afford legal representation.

He became a close friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., hosting him when he came to Houston and opening the doors of his church to King when other Black pastors would not because the FBI had wrongly labeled him as a communist. Lawson also helped launch the Houston office of King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference.