The Associated Press
HOUSTON — The Rev. William “Bill” Lawson, a longtime pastor and civil rights leader who helped desegregate Houston and worked with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement, has died. He was 95. Lawson’s longtime church, Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in that Texas city, announced on its website that he had died on Tuesday. “He has completed his time of service here on earth and is now enjoying eternal rest,” the church said in its announcement.
During an interview in 2021 with his daughter Melanie Lawson, an anchor with KTRK in Houston, William Lawson recalled how he offered to play host to King at his church when others would not after the FBI wrongly accused King of being a communist. “I told his staff I don’t have a big church. But he’s perfectly welcomed to come to my church and he came to Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church and he preached there,” Lawson said. Both men remained close friends until King’s assassination in 1968.
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