Michael E. Haynes
*Michael E. Haynes was born on this date in 1927. He was a Black minister, politician, and activist from Boston, MA.
Taught daily by a praying mother, he surrendered his life to Christ as a teenager. In the following decades, Haynes passionately represented his Savior to the city of Boston as a youth director, teacher, pastor, and social worker. His older brother is the jazz drummer Roy Haynes.
He was educated at Shelton State Community College and earned his bachelor's degree from the New England School of Theology in 1949. He served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1965 to 1968, representing Roxbury, Massachusetts. He was also a member of the Boston Mayor's Committee on Violence and the Attorney General's Advisory Committee on Drug Addiction. He was pastor at Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury from 1964 to 2004.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Haynes played an active role in the American Civil Rights movement. In 1965, he helped plan Martin Luther King Jr.'s entrance into Boston to speak on Boston Common that spring. The major focus of King's speech was school desegregation in Boston. On November 9, 2006, Northeastern University met with members of the Black Ministerial Alliance of Massachusetts at the People's Baptist Church (830 Tremont Street, Boston) to discuss possible collaborations between Northeastern and Lower Roxbury clergy.
During the meeting, Reverend Michael E. Haynes suggested the University create a history of the African American community in Lower Roxbury. As a result, the Director of Government Relations, and Community Affairs, oversees the Lower Roxbury Black History Project. The Haynes Early Education school located in Roxbury was named in his honor. Michael Haynes died on September 12, 2019.
