Rev. Calvin Butts, longtime leader of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, dead at 73

The Rev. Calvin Butts, the revered senior pastor at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church and a compelling New York voice across three decades, died Friday, the church announced.

Butts, 73, was an influential city figure, welcoming luminaries from Fidel Castro to Gov. Pataki to ex-President Clinton into his church over the years. He started work at the historic congregation in 1972 as a youth minister, eventually landing the top leadership position and welcoming generations of worshipers into the landmark building on W. 138th St.

“Rev. Butts was a major pillar in the Harlem community and is irreplaceable,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton. “He was a dominant faith and academic leader for decades. We knew each other for more than 40 years, and while we did not always agree we always came back together.”

The Rev. Conrad Tillard, a friend of Butts and senior minister at the Flatbush-Tompkins Congregational Church in Brooklyn, said the church leader was diagnosed with cancer and died around 1 a.m.

“It’s hard for me to think of Harlem without him,” said Tillard, who was ordained by Butts. “He was a straight shooter ... It was more important for him to be a leader in Harlem than to be a national leader.”

The church announced his passing ”with profound sadness” in a Friday morning statement, and a small candle-lit shrine outside the church drew neighborhood parishioners who shared a long history with Butts.

“He was my pastor for 30 years,” said Patricia Garey. “I came every Sunday because of him. He’s going to be missed tremendously.”

The oft-honored Butts received multiple honorary college degrees across his career, including one from Addis Ababa University in Africa, along with an assortment of awards for his years of community activism.

“Rev. Dr. Calvin Butts was an incredible leader, spiritual guide, and mentor to so many in the Harlem community,” tweeted Gov. Hochul. “His passing is a tremendous loss for our state.”

Butts, known for working with leaders from across the political spectrum, became both spiritual and financial leader of the church, serving as chairman of the community-based non-profit Abyssinian Development Corp. in creating more than $1 billion in housing and commercial development in Harlem.

In 1995, he was appointed by Republican Gov. Pataki to two state boards that controlled economic development grants to businesses. He welcomed then-Cuban leader Castro to the church that same year, with the communist wearing his fatigues to a rousing welcome.

“What a dynamic preacher and storyteller that we have lost but heaven has gained,” said Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP. “My thoughts and prayers are with the Butts family, friends, and the members of his church.”

Butts hosted a weekly New York radio show for a stretch, and Tillard recalled his effort to convince rappers to clean up their misogynist lyrics.

“He was courageous and bold,” said Tillard. “He rolled over that degrading stuff with a steamroller. He was out front on that. He took a lot of heat for that but he was right.”

Butts was the son of a cook whose mother worked in social services. The family moved from the Lower East Side to Queens when he was young, with Butts spending his summers in Georgia with his grandmothers.

The Morehouse College graduate credited his father with heightening his racial awareness while growing up.

“My father was the kind who would say, ‘If a black man opens a store, go shop in it,’” he said in a New York Times Magazine piece.

Butts was also president of SUNY College-old Westbury from 1999-2020, where he boosted the public college enrollment to its highest level.

He was survived by his wife, three children and six grandchildren, according to the Abyssinian web site.