Harlem salutes ‘truth teller’ Rev. Calvin Butts for his work in church and community

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Harlem said goodbye to its exalted son and prince, the Rev. Calvin Butts, the longtime pastor of the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church, whose leadership and activism inspired churchgoers and city leaders alike.

White-gloved mourners and mask-wearing dignitaries joined spirited choir singers and wordy ministers to salute a Baptist giant, whose pastorate extended beyond the church’s walls and into the community that he loved like a brother and protected like a sister.

Just blocks from where Harlem’s Apollo Theater emblazoned Butts’ name in lights on its famed marquee, Butts, who died from cancer last week at age 73, was remembered as a fiery preacher and a dedicated educator who put people before politicians and principles before a paycheck.

In the church’s ornate sanctuary, speakers traded stories about how Butts, from his Abyssinian perch built a school, whitewashed billboards that promoted cigarettes and bulldozed music CDs that degraded women and glorified gangsters.

Tributes weren’t limited to moving speeches. Actors Courtney B. Vance and LaTanya Richardson Jackson read poems by Paul Lawrence Dunbar and Langston Hughes, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) led the congregation in an impromptu song.

“He taught us how to be Black and proud and Christian,” said the Rev. Eboni Marshall Turman, one of many tribute speakers. “He was everything to us. He was a giant among men. The best of Morehouse manhood. He was a global icon. He was everything to us.”

Former President Bill Clinton recalled how long it took Butts to warm up to him.

“I came here seeking his support in this hallowed place,” Clinton said. “I didn’t get it the first time. The last time I was here we said farewell to Cicely Tyson. He said you should talk because you’re good at this. I’m not good at this today.”

Mayor Adams remembered Butts’ billboard campaign and his clean music crusade and his passion for all things righteous.

“Only one thing I’m sure of,“ Adams said, is “there wasn’t a drop left of Dr. Butts.”

Adams spoke about the people in his administration with ties to Butts’ church.

“All I did was look down the directory of Abyssinian and saw the best,” Adams said.

Before Schumer sang — Grammy winner Valerie Simpson also performed, and people said she was better — he called Butts an unapologetic truth teller.

“He could be blunt and tough but he had a beautiful spirit,” Schumer said. “He knew how to be strong and tender.”

Outside the church, where black and purple bunting hung from a fence, and bouquets of colorful flowers were propped against a wall, a line of mourners stretched down W. 138th St., and around Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. to W. 137th St.

“He’s going to be missed,” said Lisa Hunt of Harlem, who works for a pharmaceutical company and has been a member of Abyssinian Baptist Church for 29 years.

”He’s a great pastor and he has always been there for everyone and he loves the community,” Hunt said. “It’s a hole In everyone’s heart right now. I don’t know what we’re going to do, but we’re going to get through it.”

Sandra McNeill, 74, a Harlem resident, called Butts a “wonderful leader.”

“He had a combination of a wonderful sense of humor and his ability to move from biblical things to things that are still occurring in our everyday lives,” she said. “He had an ability to bridge those two things together.”

“He was a pillar of the community,” said Raquel Newell, 40, a college IT teacher from Pomona in Rockland County. “He represented peace, unity, always tried to keep it together, unified, one vision, positive. He impacted all of us,”

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia) thanked Butts for being a mentor when he studied for the ministry at Manhattan’s New York Theological Seminary on what Warnock called a “full-faith scholarship.”

“That’s when you don’t have enough money for the first semester,” Warnock explained.

He said Butts and his wife helped find work, and trained him at Abyssinian.

“Calvin Butts taught me so many things,” said Warnock, who is the pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, and is locked in a tough reelection battle with former NFL football star Hershel Walker.

“Calvin Butts taught me how to take my ministry to the streets. The work of the Lord doesn’t stop at the church door. That’s where it starts. His pulpit was the public square.”