LIVING BLACK JOY
CHOOSING THE SACRIFICE OF HIGHER SERVICE FO
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BOWIE, Md. — PASTOR WILLIAM H. LAMAR IV smiles broadly as he talks about his work to make America as equitable as it can be. Donning a gray hoodie, Lamar, affectionately known as “Billy,” casually exudes the black joy he says “makes the world go ‘round” during our Zoom interview on a quiet Saturday evening. Lamar is the senior pastor of the historic, nearly 2,000-member Metropolitan A.M.E. Church, which is nestled in the shadows of the White House in Washington, D.C. The voices of Paul Laurence Dunbar, W.E.B DuBois and Ida B. Wells once reverberated within Metropolitan’s sacred walls. The 183-year-old institution has been the site of memorial
services for such iconic figures as civil-rights activist Rosa Parks and contemporary journalist Gwen Ifill. Metropolitan AME still stands as a historic beacon of righteousness and justice, a symbol of endurance and hope . . . a place that has witnessed shades of dark humanity and the winds of change. On Sunday mornings, in the time of COVID-19, Lamar preaches in a virtual space using Zoom to stream on Facebook, YouTube and the church’s website — inspiring the minds and encouraging the hearts of his congregation. “I endeavor to speak truth,” Lamar said. “I endeavor to hear from God and the ancestors so that I can say something that is disarmingly true about where we are and who we are,
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but I can also punctuate the peaks and valleys of life with this incredible black joy that makes the world go round.” He is a long way from his Southern roots, a long way from Florida A&M University, which he fondly remembers visiting as a high-schooler drinking deeply from the intellectual and cultural wells that the university offered.
HIGH HILLS, HIGH CALLING
“I had a 1984 Chevrolet Cavalier,” Lamar said. “I would drive my Cavalier to campus and go to concerts. I would see Julian Adderley and the FAMU Essential Theatre put on plays.” Lamar graduated from FAMU in
1996 with a degree in public management, and a minor in philosophy and religion. It was during his time at FAMU, that he felt led to ministry. He shared this feeling with the late Professor Herbert Clark Alexander, who was also a local pastor. The Rev. Dr. Alexander encouraged Lamar to attend seminary. “What God is going to have you do is going to require you to be in conversation with the world,” Lamar recalled Alexander saying. The world stage is where Lamar now lives, using his literary and rhetorical gifts to do interviews and pen pieces for such media powerhouses as MSNBC, NBC News, the Huffington Post and National Public Radio. After attending Duke Divinity
