{"id":6848,"date":"2025-03-03T15:42:22","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T15:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=6848"},"modified":"2025-03-03T15:42:22","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T15:42:22","slug":"the-rev-dr-howard-john-wesley-touts-value-of-hbcus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=6848","title":{"rendered":"The Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley Touts Value of HBCUs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by\u00a0<span class=\"author vcard\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtoninformer.com\/author\/hamilrharris\/\">Hamil R. Harris<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>While he didn\u2019t attend a historically Black college or university (HBCU), the Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley, pastor of Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, is dedicated to uplifting the value and power of HBCUs nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>An annual tradition, Alfred Street has hosted HBCU Sunday since 1999, drawing congregants to don college gear and fraternity and sorority paraphernalia, as the church honors the legacy of HBCUs. This year, Wesley, sporting a Kappa Alpha Psi sweater during the Sunday, Feb. 9 service, topped off the yearly celebration with a $100,000 gift to American Baptist College in Nashville.<\/p>\n<p>\u201dI am really proud to be part of a church that recognizes the critical value of our historically Black colleges and universities,\u201d said Wesley, a graduate of Duke University, before presenting a poster-size check to Dr. Forrest E. Harris, president of American Baptist College.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n<div class=\"newspack_global_ad scaip-1 fixed-height\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-caf9af3267-0\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>This is not the first time Alfred Street has presented such a large amount. In 2019, Wesley presented then-Howard University President Wayne A.I. Frederick with a $100,000 check to pay off outstanding dues for 34 students.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s donation to American Baptist College continues that mission of supporting HBCUs and their students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to thank your pastor Howard-John Wesley, a dear, intimate brother to many of us across the country because he demonstrates the kind of Black heritage and faith that keeps our hope alive,\u201d said Harris, who preached during the 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. services. \u201cHe is a tremendous preacher, as you know, but he is a tremendous, generous giver to Black life and freedom and to our HBCUs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After the exciting\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/oNzrRVlQfh8\">moment at Alfred Street during the 8 a.m. service,<\/a>\u00a0Wesley left Alexandria and drove 12 miles into the District where he preached during the 11 a.m. service at Howard University\u2019s Andrew Rankin Chapel.<\/p>\n<p>With President Donald Trump\u2019s executive orders, attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and threats of mass deportations, Wesley noted that many are questioning their futures.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n<div class=\"newspack_global_ad scaip-2 fixed-height\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-2bd992b9b0-0\">\u201cGod\u2019s got ways that you can\u2019t begin to understand,\u201d said Wesley, who told a story about an old cab driver who got him to Dulles International from Reagan National Airport even though he was late and feared missing his flight.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t serve a weak or a wimpy God, no matter what happens God understands,\u201d said Wesley. \u201cMany of us say \u2018I\u2019m tied,\u2019 not tired but \u2018tied.\u2019 When you are tied, God will give you strength.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Source: Published without changes from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtoninformer.com\/rev-howard-john-wesley-honors-hbcus-with-100000-gift\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Washington Informer Newspaper<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by\u00a0Hamil R. Harris While he didn\u2019t attend a historically Black college or university (HBCU), the Rev. Dr. Howard-John<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,34,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-hbcu","category-regular-column"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6850,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6848\/revisions\/6850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}