User:HHMagobet/A Negro Preacher's Historic Journey

Reverend Howard O. Jones was born on April 12, 1921, in Cleveland, Ohio to Howard O. Jones Sr. and Josephine Jones. Howard made history by crossing the racial lines of the most segregated hour.

Howard O. Jones was born April 12, 1921, in Cleveland, OH to Howard O. and Josephine Jones. In 1934, the family moved to Oberlin, OH, where the son attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. For a time in high school he was first saxophonist in a local jazz band. He enrolled at the Nyack Missionary College of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, from which he graduated in 1944. The same year he married Wanda Young, also a graduate of Nyack, and the couple went to the Bronx, NY, for the Jones' first pastorate at the Bethany C&MA Church. In 1952 Jones became pastor of the Smoot Memorial C&MA Church in Cleveland, OH, where he served until 1958. It was while at this church, in 1954, that he began what were to be the two major aspects of his ministry, broadcasting a regular radio program throughout Africa and later the United States and holding evangelistic crusades in many parts of the world, particularly the United States and Africa. He was also a frequent speaker at Bible conferences and missionary conventions. In 1958 he became one of the associate evangelists of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and in 1973 he was appointed director of the Billy Graham Relief Fund for Africa. Among the many positions of leadership held by and honors awarded to Rev. Jones were presidency of the National Negro Evangelical Association (1966-1968); enrollment in the Nyack Honor Society (1967); an honorary Doctorate of Divinity degree from Huntington College, Huntington, IN (1970); membership on the board of trustees of Huntington College (1974); membership on the executive committee of the board of National Religious Broadcasters (1974). He wrote three books, including an autobiography, From the World of Jazz. The Jones had five children: Cheryl (1946), Gail (1948), Phyllis (1950), David (1953), and Lisa (1961).