The Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference was held on February 19-22 in Chicago, Illinois, at the Palmer House Hilton. The theme for the Clergy and Leadership Conference was “Where Legacy Meets Future: Reimagine! Rethink! Reinvent!” 

The conference is named for the late Rev. Dr. Samuel DeWitt Proctor, who served as pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church of New York City and a professor at Rutgers University. Proctor was also the president of Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia and North Carolina A&T State University. 

The conference, created by Dr. Iva E. Carruthers, Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III and Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., is in its twenty-first year and continues its commitment to sound biblical knowledge and social advocacy.

Over four days, attendees were invited “to explore the intersection of the theoretical and the practical through transgenerational reflection, sharing and collaboration,” according to the organization’s website. The words of John Kinney, Distinguished Professor School of Theology at The Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology, were cited in support of their aim: “At Proctor, we are envisioning an alternative world and investing in behaviors that resource us for [re]construction.”

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