Detroit has lost one of this country's most prominent African American ministers, the Reverend Dr. Charles G. Adams, Pastor Emeritus at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church passed away on November 29th at the age of 86.

Visitation and a celebration of his life will take place on December 14th and 15th at Hartford.

Over the years, Reverend Adams was a frequent guest on this show to talk about the Black religious experience, racial injustice, and, of course, economic development here in Detroit.

His son, Reverend Charles Christian Adams, who is senior pastor at Hartford and a member of our Black Church in Detroit Advisory Committee, sat down with me to reflect on his father's legacy.

Reverend Adams, our deepest condolences to you and your family and your congregation, and welcome to "American Black Journal."

- Thank you, Stephen, I'm honored to be here yet again.

- Obviously I always enjoy talking to you and these are terrible circumstances to have to do it, but I wanna start, I think on a bright note, you know, my family has been in the city a really long time, as has yours.

Our families have actually known each other a really long time, when I think about your dad, as I've done a lot since he passed, of course, all I can think of are good things.

All I can think of are tremendous things that he said or did, or the feelings that so many people in our city have for him.

And so, of course it's sad that he's no longer with us, but my goodness, what a celebration I feel like we can have of who he was and what he meant to us and our city.

- Yeah, I think that is a very powerful statement considering that the pathway to that kind of legacy was not one that caused him to surrender his integrity.

- Right.

- He was unafraid to trouble the waters, he was known for the enemies that he made.

When he was president of the NAACP, they accused him of being anti-suburbian.

And he said, "Look, I'm not anti-suburbs, I'm pro Detroit."

And as a pastor, he kept troubling the waters.

He moved us from the west side of Detroit to the northwest side of Detroit and to areas that were less integrated.

And, you know, many churches who moved over there moved into former synagogues, but there was still this feeling that somehow, the church we moved into was a white church that had moved to the suburbs, but there's still this feeling that Blacks were not gonna be successful on the northwest side of Detroit and its adjacent suburbs.

But yet he proved them wrong, yet again, when he ordained women into the diaconate ministry and into the ministry, many people were upset because of that.

And I can go onward, he interjected himself into the Middle East conversation and went to Jordan with Bill Clinton.

He, you know, whenever you fight for the least of these, you're going to trouble the waters.

However, with all of that said, you know, when we look back, you're right, I think the memories must be positive and uplifting.

And I believe that we see his heart, and the work of his hands.

- Yeah, and I guess that for me is everything, you know, the things that you were talking about that he did, the risks that he took, the fortitude he showed in standing by what he believed and standing up for what he believed, and standing up for other people, lending his voice and his strength to people who didn't have that.

I know that does get you in trouble and it does make people angry, but I think for us in this city, the people who do that, the people who do it unswervingly and dedicate so much of their lives to it, they're heroes.

I mean, that's a word that gets tossed around a lot, but in this case, it really matters.

- Yeah, oftentimes, we live in an age where the cause is us.

There's no real constituency, whether you're a pastor or a political leader or community activist, or whatever your role is, the cause has to be bigger than us.

You can't say or do anything just to get elected.

You can't say or do anything just to maintain your positions.

There is a guiding ethos.

There is the underpinnings of philosophy and belief that there has to be purpose in what you're doing that is bigger than your position.

We must not be so concerned about positions that we lose our purpose, and I think people felt that in him.

And even those who didn't agree with him, felt that his stance was sincere.

You know, it was interesting because, you know, Hartford had a lot of conservatives in its heyday we'll say, but it's still, the heyday continues.

But certainly when we had the phenomenal growth that, you know, is so well known, where we had 10,000 members on the roll and they were putting chairs down the aisle, and you had to park on Seven Mile Road just to get in the church.

There were a lot of conservatives.

I could start naming names, I won't do that.

But, you know, I remember there was one sermon that I preached as a young man, and I was railing against the Republicans and kind of deifying the Democrats.

And afterwards my father said, "You know, I was looking at so-and-so, and they were shaking their head.

I was looking at so-and-so, and they looked like they were angry."

I wanted to say, "Well, what are they doing here?"

Right, they know who we are.

But the fact of the matter is his love for humanity appealed to everybody.

Democrat, Republican, rich, poor, Black, white.

At one point we had, even though we were predominantly African American church, we had some white members in the church.

And still yet today we have those bridges.

We partner with Christ Church Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills.

We do a lot of interfaith work.

We partner with churches in, now it escapes me, but an adjacent suburb of Michigan, Chilson Hills Church.

And there's many affiliations we have that go beyond the bounds of race, class, and political opinion because I think people respond to sincerity.

They respond to a pure heart.

- So I want to give you a chance to talk about your father as your father.

You know, for the rest of us, this is a public loss and the loss of a symbol and a leader and things like this.

This was your dad, the first man you knew in the world.

Talk about that relationship and how powerful that was for him and for you.

- Yeah, it's a profound loss.

And I guess I'm not the only one that's had to deal with this.

Many others have had to deal with the loss of their parents, but you cannot prepare yourself for grief.

It is one of those things that is, even though you know it is coming, you can brace yourself, but it's still going to be something that gets a visceral and emotional reaction, and I've had those moments.

But I'm gonna tell you something, Stephen, my gratitude outweighs my grief.

My thankfulness outdistances my sadness, because I have had a wonderful father.

Even though he was, you know, called upon all over the world, you know, he preached revivals where he had to be out of town.

I'm not talking about these new revivals, right?

The revival, the Sunday to Friday revivals, and he'd be all across the country preaching these long revivals, but somehow he always made his way back home, and he would take my sister and I out to the movies and, you know, if we had an event at school, he'd find his way to the schools.

And I remember some of my football games, you know, I played in high school, he would be at the game in the stands in a suit.

(both laugh) My sister sung for Mercy's Chorale one Christmas, and he was the loudest voice in the room.

They were singing the "Hallelujah" chorus, and the director and the other participants said, "Your dad carried the song," and he knew all the parts.

But yeah, he was, and just really generous with his time.

I don't have any student loans for undergraduate to forgive.

And when I became a minister, oh my God.

Even though it's not something he ever wanted for me, you know, you would not want this for your children.

You know, you want your children to do something else and have peace of mind and make money.

He did not want this for me.

But when indeed it happened, we would have conversations, three or four-hour conversations, you know, conversations about everything.

He was so generous in sharing his wisdom with me.

People say, "What are you gonna miss about your dad?"

I say, "The conversations."

The conversations, yean.

- Well, Reverend Adams, again, our condolences to you and your family, and of course, the entire Hartford community.

But thanks for being with us to share all of these memories on "American Black Journal."

- Thank you.