The MLK Council of Elders
Dr. Milton A. Reid
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Dr. Milton A. Reid, who prefers to be called, "Milton, the Disciple," is the son and grandson of Baptist ministers, pastors, and founder of churches. He was born in Chesapeake, Virginia on January 26, 1930 during the height of the great depression in America. The disciple discovered the real world as he walked to school in Norfolk County as White children rode the bus. When a white boy spat on him one morning, he suddenly noticed that they were riding and he was walking. After raising the question with his father, he was simply told that God was going to fix it after a while. When the first school bus was driven on that route some eight years later, he drove it.
Upon completing high school, he volunteered to go into the United States Army, and became a paratrooper with the Eighty Second Airborne Division and was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he met and married Marian E. Todd of Windsor, North Carolina. He continued his education at Fayetteville State Teachers College and Virginia Union University, Richmond, where he graduated with a B.A. degree in History and a Masters of Divinity Degree in Theology in 1955 - 1958 respectively. In 1953 he was called to the New Hope Baptist Church of Chesapeake and the Mount Olive Baptist Church of Virginia Beach in 1955. He was called to the First Baptist Church, Harrison Street in Petersburg in 1957, and to the New Calvary Baptist church in 1966. While in Petersburg, he met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who invited him to work with Southern Christian Leadership Conference as a member of the national board of directors.
While in Petersburg, he had his first jail experience for civil disobedience, jailed four times in Danville, Virginia, being sent there by Dr. King, once in Lynchburg, Virginia, once in Albany, Georgia, once in Edenton, North Carolina, and twice in Norfolk Virginia, demanding justice and equal opportunity. He served eight years on the U.S. Civil Rights Commission and forty -two years national board of SCLC. He was a national board member of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization and Pastors for peace, for twenty -two years.
An international traveler, he has preached on five of the seven continents of the world, baptized three times in the River Jordan, and served communion three times in the upper room in Jerusalem. In 1970 he took a trip around the world with his lovely wife Marian, and has traveled extensively in Africa, Asia, Cuba, Europe, and the Soviet Union. In 1980 he completed the entire requirement and graduated with honors from the School of Theology at Boston University with a Doctor of Ministry Degree in "Liberation Theology." A retired American Baptist Pastor, he continues his ministry of Liberation and Celebration through newspaper columns in the New Journal and Guide, which he once owned as President, Publisher, and CEO. The New Journal & Guide is the third oldest Black Weekly in America starting in 1900. He has published his first book, "The God of the West, versus, the Christ of Glory." The subtitle is "A Liberating and Exhilarating Journey of Faith" by Trafford Publishers of Canada. At 77, he is now querying the possibilities of enrolling in a Ph.D program at Boston University and or at Harvard, University to pursue the study of "A Divine Biology of Being." The Disciple has been married to Marian for 55 plus years, which he has named his very special "Bluebird." He is the father of four, Maravia R. Ebong, Michelle A. Reid, Milton A. Reid, Jr. and Humphrey T. Reid of Liberia. In retirement he continues to write, teach, preach, speak, and travel with his Blue Bird. They have seven grandchildren, three in Liberia, and two in Silver Springs, Maryland, one in Nigeria, and one in Virginia Beach.
