HOUSTON – Houston icon, Reverend William ‘Bill’ Alexander Lawson, has reportedly died at the age of 95.
Lawson was known for his role in the civil rights movement, along with being the founder of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston’s Third Ward.
Reverend Lawson came to Houston as a 27-year-old in the mid-50s to serve as the director of the Baptist Student Union at Texas Southern University.
From that assignment grew the man who would become a legendary preacher and civil rights leader who said he was in the right place at the right time.
Lawson was among those organizing Houston’s civil rights movement during the 60s when desegregation was a key goal, and again in the 70s when an initiative was on the ballot to end affirmative action in the city.
Rev. Lawson was married to his late wife Audrey for nearly 62 years.
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It was in their living room that a meeting of 13 people grew into the Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church where he pastored for 42 years. He would say it was her heart that led to his religious activism.
Back in 2018, Rev. Lawson sat down to talk with KPRC 2′s Khambrel Marshall.
During his time as pastor of Wheeler, he did much more than preach. He invited Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to his pulpit at a time when other pastors would not.
When asked how he’d like his life to be remembered, the preacher in him shined through.
“I don’t know. I simply hope I would have been faithful to what the gospel is. And the gospel speaks of feeding the poor and clothing the naked, and if I have been faithful to that, I’ll be glad to be perceived that way.”