Mel Williams

Activist & Baptist pastor emeritus

The Rev. Mel Williams is the coordinator of End Poverty Durham. Before his retirement, he served as pastor of Watts Street Baptist Church in Durham, N.C., for 24 years. While in that role, he served as president of Durham Congregations in Action in 1991-1992; was the co-founder of Religious Coalition for a Nonviolent Durham in 1992; led the creation of the Walltown “Neighbor to Neighbor” mission in 1995; and in 2004 co-founded End Poverty Durham. For five years, Williams chaired the Committee on Baptist Studies at Duke University, which later became the Baptist House of Studies.