The Greater Seattle community is mourning the loss of Rev. Dr. Samuel B. McKinney, pastor emeritus of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Seattle. McKinney served as pastor of Mt. Zion, one of the largest and oldest Black churches in the Pacific Northwest from 1958 to 1998 and again from 2005 to 2008. He died Saturday afternoon.
McKinney was born on December 28, 1926 to Rev. Wade Hampton McKinney and Ruth Berry McKinney in Flint, Michigan. As a child in Cleveland, Ohio, McKinney was inspired by his father who challenged racism, and invited civil rights leaders such as Thurgood Marshall to speak frequently at his church.
Rev. McKinney attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga with the intention of becoming a civil rights lawyer, but changed career paths after Morehouse President Benjamin E. Mays encouraged him to become a minister. McKinney graduated from Morehouse in 1949 and enrolled in New York’s Colgate Rochester Divinity School, graduating in 1952. In 1953, he married Louise Jones, an educator and activist in her own right.
At Mt. Zion, Rev. McKinney established numerous programs that assisted the Black community including the Mount Zion Baptist Church Credit Union, the first Protestant credit union in the state of Washington.
Rev. McKinney’s voice echoed beyond the walls of the church and into the halls of local and state governments. By the 1960s, McKinney became one of the most powerful voices for civil rights in Seattle, participating in demonstrations for equality in housing, employment, and education. He also played major role in the local Central Area Civil Rights Committee. In 1965, McKinney joined in the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights march which pressured the U.S. Congress to enact the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Continuing his activism into the 1980s, Rev. McKinney was arrested in 1985 protesting apartheid at the South African consul’s home in Seattle.
Rev. McKinney also worked to sensitize the community to the needs of the less fortunate, regardless of ethnic background. In 1961, Rev. McKinney convinced his college classmate and friend, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to make his only Seattle visit in 1961 from November 8 to November 10.
As an original member of the Seattle Human Rights Commission, Rev. McKinney and his fellow commissioners originated and pushed through the passage of the open housing ordinance. It was the first fair housing act in Seattle’s history that prevented discrimination against protected classes who were renting, selling, financing or purchasing housing.
In 2014, The Seattle City Council unanimously established the honorary name designation of 19th Avenue from East Union to East Madison Streets as “Rev. Dr. S. McKinney Ave.” The resolution was adopted to honor the extraordinary civil rights work of Rev.Dr. McKinney.
McKinney was preceded in death by his wife, Louise McKinney, who died in 2012. The couple has two daughters – Lora-Ellen McKinney and Rhoda McKinney-Jones.
