The Rev. H.C. Boyd remembered as an icon of the Albany community

ALBANY — Dolores Ann Boyd McCrary was always a daddy’s girl.

Even as her father, the Rev. H.C. Boyd, went about his many duties, she tagged along, observing the Shiloh Baptist Church pastor as he interacted with his extended family, the Shiloh church family and the strangers who were frequently at her family’s home to formulate strategy for the burgeoning civil rights movement.

It’s understandable, then, that McCrary, herself a pastor at The Two-Edged Sword Fellowship in north Georgia’s Conyers, feels a great sense of loss in the wake of her father’s passing Saturday.

“I saw him in the ministry, saw how he impacted so many people’s lives,” McCrary said of the man who became synonymous with both Shiloh and the Albany Movement during his 57 years as the Albany church’s pastor. “But at home, he was my daddy. I remember that a lot of people called on him, day and night, and as close as our family was and as much as we treasured our time together, he still always responded to those calls.

“And even though he was my father, seeing the impact he had on others left me in awe of how far-reaching his influence is.”

Boyd, raised by sharecropper parents in Long County’s tiny Ludowici community, celebrated his 57th anniversary as Shiloh’s pastor in April of this year. While serving in the U.S. Army in Hawaii, Boyd, who’d been ordained at his home church before being drafted, preached his first sermon to a group of soldiers.

When he returned home, he started his career bringing the gospel, preaching at Ellabell Baptist Church near Savannah. While there, Boyd commuted to Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he earned a degree in sociology. He preached at churches in Liberty County, Waycross, Douglas, Ocilla and Moultrie before being called to preach at Shiloh in 1959.

“(Coming to Shiloh) had to be God’s will because in my mind I was going to stay at Mother Easter (Baptist Church in Moultrie),” Boyd told The Albany Herald in a February interview.

Former Albany City Commissioner Henry Mathis, who serves as the senior associate pastor at Shiloh, said Albany had lost on “icon” with Boyd’s passing.

“I couldn’t have served at the feet of a greater person,” Mathis said Tuesday morning. “I liken it to the Apostle Paul, who learned at the feet of the great teacher of his day. I was like Paul, learning from H.C. Boyd. I was with him for 20 years, and as we traveled to and fro, I was a sponge absorbing all I could from this great teacher, this great friend.”

Mathis said Boyd was as renowned for his civic work as he was for his spiritual guidance.

“As vital as his theological work and pastoral obligations were, Rev. Boyd was very involved in our community and in the civil rights movement,” Mathis said. “His thing in life was helping other people, and you see that in his long service on the DEFACS (Department of Family and Children Services) board. He did everything he could to help those who were underprivileged.

“I’m sure there are many people feeling this loss today. I told my family I lost my biological father a year, four months and a few days ago. On Saturday, I lost my spiritual father, friend and pastor.”

Boyd is remembered for his bold stance during the Albany Movement, opening the doors to Shiloh to movement members despite threats from the white community. He famously continued a sermon during tense moments of the local movement despite receiving a bomb threat.

“At that time, in the heat of the civil rights movement, that threat was very real,” Boyd told The Herald. “Now if I’d told the congregation there might be a bomb under the church, they would have scattered. And that’s exactly what the person (who made the threat) wanted to happen.

“I decided not to say anything about it, to go on with the service. If it was my time to go, our church’s time to go, so be it. I decided there’s no better place to go to heaven from.”

McCrary, a retired educator, said her parents shielded her and her older brother from most of the conflict of the movement.

“I was in elementary school during that era, and I knew from all the activity in our home and at church that something significant was going on,” McCrary said. “But our parents — our mom, Barbara Mae Riles Boyd, especially — shielded us from as much of it as possible. We knew stuff was going on, but we only got a sense of it.

“Still, I know from growing up that both of my parents were soldiers in their own right.”

McCrary said she is at peace with her father’s passing.

“There is sorrow, yes, but there is a great sense of satisfaction knowing the life my father led,” she said. “Knowing the man my father was, knowing the great impact he had on so many people that have reached out to us in the last few days, gives me peace and joy.”

Boyd’s memorial service will be held at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church Saturday at 10 .m.