Dr. S.C. Cureton, longtime pastor of Reedy River Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina and former president of the National Baptist Convention USA, has died. He was 78.
Cureton, who was outspoken on such issues as the fight to bring the Confederate battle flag down from the Statehouse dome and the establishment of a holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. in Greenville County, led the 8 million-member denomination in 1999.
“He was an energetic, authentic modern leader,” said the Rev. John Berry, who served with Cureton in leadership positions in the South Carolina Baptist Educational and Missionary Convention. Cureton was president of the state organization from 1986 until 1991.
…He was the National Baptist Convention’s choice to lead the nation’s largest black denomination after it was rocked by scandal in 1999. The group’s president, the Rev. Henry Lyons, was convicted of defrauding more than $4 million from corporations wanting to do business with convention members. Cureton served as interim president for the remainder of Lyons’ term….Before serving as president of the National Baptist Convention, he was vice president at-large for the convention. He was a past moderator of the Reedy River Baptist Association and served on the board of trustees of Benedict and Morris colleges.
For more on Dr. S.C. Cureton, see this press release from the National Baptist Convention USA.
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