Eugene S. Callender (January 21, 1926 – November 2, 2013) was an American pastor and activist in the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

Biography

Eugene St. Clair Callender was born in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

, to parents who were immigrants from

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

. He studied at

Cambridge Rindge and Latin School The Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, also known as CRLS or "Rindge," is a public high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It is a part of the Cambridge Public School District. In 1977, two separate schools, the Rindge Technical ...

and

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

, before becoming the first African American to study at Westminster Theological Seminary. He later studied at

New York Law School New York Law School (NYLS) is a private law school in Tribeca, New York City. NYLS has a full-time day program and a part-time evening program. NYLS's faculty includes 54 full-time and 59 adjunct professors. Notable faculty members include E ...

. For most of his life, Callender lived and worked in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

. He was the first black ordained minister in the

Christian Reformed Church in North America The Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA or CRC) is a Protestant Calvinist Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. Having roots in the Dutch Reformed Church of the Netherlands, the Christian Reformed Church was founde ...

(CRCNA). A past executive director of the New York Urban League and a former president of the New York Urban Coalition, he also served as deputy administrator of the New York City Housing and Development Administration. In 1970, Callender hosted (with Joan Harris, at its launch) the hour-long

WNBC WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo station WN ...

‐TV (Channel 4) series ''Positively Black'', which aired weekly, featuring Black artists, writers, actors, musicians, sports figures and activists, as well as news about life and culture in the community.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Callender, Eugene 1926 births 2013 deaths 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people Activists for African-American civil rights African-American Christian clergy American Presbyterian ministers Boston University alumni Cambridge Rindge and Latin School alumni New York Law School alumni People from Cambridge, Massachusetts Westminster Theological Seminary alumni