Calhoun MLKJr Program Jan 23 2018

Calhoun Community College Reschedules Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Program to January 23
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Reverend Dr. Julius R. Scruggs

​Due to Calhoun Community College closing this week as the result of inclement weather, the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration has been rescheduled for Tuesday, January 23, 2018, 11am, in the Aerospace Training Center (ATC) on the Decatur campus.

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The featured speaker for this year's program is Reverend Dr. Julius R. Scruggs, pastor of First Baptist Missionary Church in Huntsville. A native of Elkton, Tennessee, Scruggs was raised in Toney, Alabama. He is a graduate of Council Training High School in Huntsville, Alabama. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree at American Baptist College in Nashville, Tennessee, he completed requirements for the Master of Divinity (M. Div.) and Doctor of Ministry (D. Min.) degrees at Vanderbilt University School of Divinity in Nashville. Scruggs also received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University, Normal, Alabama.

His pastoral experience began at age 18 at Pine Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Harvest, Alabama where he served from 1960-1965. From 1965-1976, he pastored the Mt. Ararat Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee and Antioch Baptist Church in East Chicago, Indiana. In 1977, Scruggs became the pastor at First Missionary Baptist Church in Huntsville. During his more than thirty-six (36) years in the pastorate at First Baptist, the church has initiated witnessing/evangelism teams, jail ministry teams, scholarship funds, and health fitness and recreation ministries.  More than 4,700 new members have united with the church during Scruggs tenure. He has led the church in giving to Home and Foreign Mission causes annually, as well as built and paid for 20 houses in partnership with Habitat for Humanity.
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In 1999, Scruggs was elected as Vice President-at-Large of the National Baptist Convention (NBC), USA, Inc. and in 2009 was later named the 17th President of the NBC. He is a member of the Board of Trustees at American Baptist College; member of the National Board of Directors, NAACP; former board member of Selma University; and former President of the Alabama State Missionary Baptist Convention (President Emeritus). Locally, he is a member of the Huntsville Human Relations Commission; member and former president of the Greater Huntsville Interdenominational Ministerial Fellowship (GHIMF); Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, Inc., Epsilon Kappa Boule’ and provides advisory support to a wide range of community movements. He has also been recognized in “Who’s Who in Religion,” “Outstanding Young Men in America,” and “Personalities in America Hall of Fame.” Additionally, he was the 1998 recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Award presented by GHIMF.

Among his educational and pastoral accomplishments, Dr. Scruggs has authored four books: Meditations on the Church, Baptist Preachers with Social Consciousness: A Comparative Study of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Harry Fosdick, God is Faithful, and How to Study and Teach the Bible.

Dr. Scruggs is married to the former Josephine Stewart Tipton. They are the proud parents of Jennifer Juliette Scruggs (daughter) and Morris Errol Tipton, II (son). They have three grandchildren: Morris E. Tipton, III, Morgan Taylor Tipton, and Elizabeth Francina Scruggs.

For more information about Calhoun’s MLK program, please contact Mr. Ernest Williams at 256/306-2742 or you visit www.calhoun.edu/calendar

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