John M. Perkins is a sharecropper’s son who grew up in New Hebron, Mississippi amidst dire poverty. Fleeing to California at age 17 after his older brother’s murder at the hands of a town marshal, he vowed never to return. However after converting to Christianity in 1960 he returned to Mendenhall, Mississippi to share the gospel of Christ. While in Mississippi, his outspoken nature and support and leadership in civil rights demonstrations resulted in repeated harassment, beatings and imprisonment.

In Mendenhall, Perkins and his wife, Vera Mae, founded Voice of Calvary Ministries. This Christian community development ministry started a church, health center, leadership development program, thrift store, low-income housing development, and training center. In 1982, the Perkins family returned to California and lived in the city of Pasadena where he and his wife founded Harambee Christian Family Center in Northwest Pasadena, a neighborhood that had one of the highest daytime crime rates in California. Harambee is yet standing, running numerous programs including after school tutoring, Good News Bible Clubs, an award-winning technology center, summer day camp, youth internship programs, and a college scholarship program. In 1983, while yet in California, Perkins and his wife, along with a few friends and other major supporters,  established the John M. Perkins Foundation for Reconciliation & Development, Inc for the sole purpose of supporting their mission of advancing the principles of Christian community development and racial reconciliation throughout the world. The Foundation is now headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi.

At the end of that same decade Dr. Perkins called together a group of Christian leaders from across America that was bonded by one significant commitment – expressing the love of Christ in America’s poor communities, not at arms length, but at the grass-roots level. An association was formed and the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) held its first annual conference in Chicago in 1989. CCDA has grown from 37 founding members to 6,800 individuals and 600 churches, ministries, institutions and businesses in more than 100 cities and townships across the country.

Today, Dr. Perkins is president of John M. Perkins Foundation for Reconciliation and Development. He is one of the leading evangelical voices to come out of the American civil rights movement. He is also an internationally known author, speaker, and teacher on issues of racial reconciliation and Christian community development.

Despite dropping out of school in the third grade, Dr. Perkins has been recognized for his work with eight honorary doctorates from colleges and universities across the country. For his tireless work, he received honorary doctorates from Wheaton College, Gordon College, Huntington College, Geneva College, Spring Arbor University, North Park College, and Belhaven College.

He is the author of nine books including A Quiet Revolution, Let Justice Roll Down, With Justice For All, Beyond Charity, He’s My Brother, Resurrecting Hope, and A Time to Heal. He has also written numerous chapters in other books. Dr. Perkins has formally served on the board of directors of World Vision, Prison Fellowship, National Association of Evangelicals, Spring Arbor University, and on fifteen other boards.

In 2004, Perkins partnered with Seattle Pacific University to launch the campus-based John Perkins Center for Reconciliation, Leadership Training and Community Development. The Center is a first-of-its-kind partnership and what Dr. Perkins describes as “the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.”

Website: www.jmpf.org