Rev. Dr. Robert Jeffrey served nine years as Senior Pastor of Pilgrim Baptist Church in Roanoke, VA before relocating to Seattle in 1986 to become the Senior Pastor of the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, where he still serves as of 2019. Throughout his career, Jeffrey has advocated for those locked out of economic opportunity. In 1988, Jeffrey founded the Black Dollar Days Task Force (BDDTF), a non-profit organization committed to facilitating economic self-sufficiency for African Americans. In early 1994, Jeffrey launched "Campaign 5000," a grassroots drive to establish a revolving loan fund to benefit new and expanding inner-city businesses. As of 2019, Jeffrey also serves on the boards of the Boys and Girls Club of Seattle, the Church Council of Greater Seattle, and Washington State SANE/Freeze. He has received numerous awards including the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Service Award and the W.E.B. Dubois Talented Tenth Award.
In this photo, Reverends Robert Jeffrey (center) and Zachary Bruce (left) of New Hope Baptist Church visit Johnnie Williams, owner and manager of E.M.V. Cleaner at 1922 E. Yesler Street in the Central Area. The cleaners was one of the African American-owned businesses helped by the Rev. Jeffrey's economic programs.
Cpation information source: New Hope Missionary Baptist Church website at https://nhmbcseattle.org/about/dr-jeffrey Caption information source: "Seattle Police Cleared In Raid That Killed Man," by Thomas W. Haines. Seattle Times, November 16, 1995, retrieved at http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19951116&slug=2152932 Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.
