Clinton Honors Rev. Butts at Waldorf Gala

Marking the end of an 18-month bicentennial celebration, the Abyssinian Development Corporation—the economic offshoot of the Harlem Baptist church—flaunted the church’s national network and influence Monday night at a white tie gala at the Waldorf-Astoria.

Monday evening’s gathering drew a guest list reflective of the longtime marriage Abyssinian has overseen between faith and other fields. Guests at the Waldorf’s grand ballroom ranged from grassroots organizers and pastors to celebrities such as actress Cicely Tyson, who emceed, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY, and former president Bill Clinton.

A presence in New York’s black religious community since 1808—and in Harlem since 1938—the Abyssinian Baptist Church has grown from modest beginnings to a city- and nationwide agent of social justice and development. Despite tensions with its surrounding neighborhood, the church has seen its programs expanded to a corporate and political level under Rev. Calvin Butts III, the pastor for the last 19 years.

Bill Clinton expressed gratitude for Butts and the role Abyssinian has played in New York City and its immediate neighborhood.

“I’ve known Rev. Calvin Butts for many years, and I can attest to his commitment to making a positive impact on not just the community, but also the world around him,” Clinton said in a press release.

Due to a dispute among Abyssinian officials over whether press should be allowed in the ballroom, reporters were asked to leave just before Clinton, the last of the night’s speakers, delivered his address.

Butts demonstrated his strong ties with the Clintons in January when he endorsed Sen. Clinton for her presidential bid. Yet in an interview on Monday, he implied that his views may have shifted with the election of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.), CC ’83, last week.

Harlem residents must “make sure that the effort he [Obama] put forth is not lost ... that people listen to his policies,” Butts said, adding that “not all people have yet caught the spirit."

Begun by a group of African Americans and Ethiopian merchants frustrated by the segregation at church in lower Manhattan, Abyssinian has gone through eight ministers, including former Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and spread its arms out into the community throughout Harlem’s century of financial boom and busts.

“When you think about Abyssinian, it’s the core centerpiece of the stable, with its spiritual work, its after-school programs for kids,” Scott Stringer, Manhattan borough president, told Spectator at the event.

Continuing upon that tradition of recreation and housing programs, in 1989 Butts and others founded the Abyssinian Development Corporation, the not-for-profit restoration and real estate group that organized Monday’s event.

U.S. Representative Charles Rangel (D-Harlem) explained the parallels between Abyssinian’s influence outside of Harlem and Butts’ initiatives. “Whether you’re talking education, economic developments,” Rangel said at the banquet, “he goes beyond the original area.”

scott.levi@columbiaspectator.com