Rev. Dr. Wayne E. Croft Sr., pastor of St. Paul’s Baptist Church in West Chester, will deliver the 2021 Dr. Clifford E. DeBaptiste Frederick Douglass Lecture at West Chester University on Thursday, Oct. 7 at 4 PM.

The lecture will be given at DeBaptiste Plaza at the Frederick Douglass statue on the Quad behind Philips Memorial Building. The rain location is Sykes Student Union Theater.

The event, which is free and open to the public, is hosted by WCU’s Frederick Douglass Institute and is made possible through the generous gift of Dr. Clifford E. DeBaptiste, the first African-American mayor of West Chester and a recognized champion of education.

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Croft is a distinguished pastor, writer, and scholar and the Jeremiah A. Wright Sr. Associate Professor of Homiletics and Liturgics in African-American Studies at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.

Prior to leading St. Paul’s, Croft served the Church of the Redeemer Baptist in Philadelphia for 20 years. He is the founder of the Redeemer Renaissance Community Development Corporation, a life member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., and past president of the NAACP West Chester Branch.

An inductee of the Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers of Morehouse College, Croft is also the first person to earn both a doctor of ministry and doctor of philosophy from Drew University. He earned his bachelor of arts from Trinity College; master of divinity from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now Palmer Theological Seminary); and master of theology from Princeton Theological Seminary.

The goal of WCU’s Dr. Clifford E. DeBaptiste Frederick Douglass Lecture is to maintain the legacy of the great abolitionist, orator, and statesman Frederick Douglass; serve as an educational and cultural resource for advancing multicultural studies across campus and community; and to deepen the intellectual heritage of Frederick Douglass, who was a frequent visitor to the West Chester area.

Douglass gave his last public lecture on West Chester’s campus on Feb. 1, 1895, just 19 days before his death.

This year’s Dr. Clifford E. DeBaptiste Frederick Douglass Lecture is part of the 150th Anniversary Diversity Speaker Series.