NEWS FEATURE:  10 Minutes with … Julius Scruggs

October 7, 2009

By Adelle M. Banks

(RNS) After a contentious election process, the Rev. Julius R. Scruggs was elected in September as the new president of the National Baptist Convention, USA. By a vote of 4,108 to 924, Scruggs defeated the Rev. Henry J. Lyons, a former president of the NBCUSA who had served time in prison for embezzlement.



In the days before the election, Lyons sued the NBCUSA over its election process but the case was dismissed shortly after the meeting. Scruggs, 67, the pastor of First Missionary Baptist Church in Huntsville, Ala., talked about the meaning behind his presidential win and his plans for one of the nation’s historic African-American denominations.

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