2012 MARTIN LUTHER KING BREAKFAST.
SPEAKER'S PROFILE.
The Rev. Sam E. Mann,
Retired Pastor Administrator,
St. Mark Union Church,
Executive Director Emeritus,
United Inner City Services.
The Rev. Sam E. Mann is the retired Pastor Administrator of St. Mark Union Church and Executive Director Emeritus of United Inner City Services. He served 40 years of dedicated service. In that capacity he oversaw a budget of $ 1.5 million and a 62 member staff, and programs that included: child and family development, social services, and community development and street organizations and violence prevention. He is also Chairman of the Board of 12th and Vine Housing Corporation, the owner of Parker Square which contains 204 units of low to moderate income housing owned and developed by St. Mark. One of Rev. Mann’s greatest accomplishments is the building of the St. Mark Child and Family Development Center, a $4 million state of the art child care facility located at 2008 East 12th Street in Kansas City.
Rev. Mann was a local preacher at the age of 15 at the First Methodist Church of Eufaula, Alabama. He was later the Associate Pastor of St. John United Methodist Church of Kansas City, Missouri and the Pastor of the First Methodist Church of Peculiar, Missouri. He was dismissed from both churches because of his views on race and peace. He became the Pastor of St. Mark Union Church in 1971.
Rev. Mann has been a long-time civil rights activist, having marched in numerous demonstrations, including the march for the garbage workers in Memphis, Tennessee, and the march against the war in Vietnam (led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.). Dr. Mann has been jailed on several occasions for his civil rights activity. He was part of the U.S. delegation that visited with South African ANC leader Dr. Nelson Mandela immediately after his release from prison, as well as Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Rev. Mann served as a key participant, along with his friend Dr. Mac Charles Jones, in the national effort to respond to the burning of black churches in America.
Rev. Mann is the founder of the Presbyterian Urban Ministers Network; co-sponsor of Kansas City’s Urban Peace and Justice Summit, has served on the Board of directors of Black Archives of Mid- America and for 30 years has served as Chair of Kansas City’s local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership ConferenceRev. Mann is the recipient of numerous awards including: the NAACP, Harold Holiday Award; the John M. Swomley Human Rights Award; an Elder Statesmen of Kansas City; the Sam Eason Award presented by Niles Home for Children; the Beta Omega Chapter of Omega PSI PHI Fraternity Inc.'s Citizen of the Year Award and the Black Economic Union’s Citizen of the Year Award. He is co-founder of the project "Reframing the Dialogue on Race in America". Through this national project he attempts to address the problem of race by focusing on the issues of white supremacy and white privilege. He seeks to inspire, through training, white ministries to address racism in their congregations.
Rev. Mann is a native of Eufaula Alabama. He is a graduate of Birmingham-Southern College, B.A.; Duke Divinity School, M.Div.; and St. Paul’s School of Theology, D.Min. He is married to Dr. Beverlye J. Brown and is the father of three children and grandfather of seven.
