Powerful Dallas Minister Freddy Haynes Who Praised PuLSE Institute as a National Model in 2021 Keynote Lecture is Widely Expected to be Next Texas Congressman

Reverend Dr. Frederick Douglass Haynes III, the senior pastor of Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, and one of the most influential African American ministers in the country whose vibrant anti-poverty crusade brings moral clarity to the essence of the Black Church is likely on his way to becoming the next Congressman from Dallas, Texas after winning Tuesday’s primary context in the heavily Democratic 30th Congressional District.

In securing the Democratic nomination, Haynes is widely expected to win the general election in November in one of the reliably Democratic seats in Texas.

In 2021, Haynes accepted the invitation of The PuLSE Institute, Detroit’s national anti-poverty think tank to serve as the keynote speaker for a Black Church Lecture Series named after Rev. Solomon W. Kinloch Jr., the senior pastor of Detroit’s Triumph Church.

Before giving the keynote on April 5, the day after the assassination anniversary of civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Haynes applauded both the work of The PuLSE Institute led by Attorney Tina M. Patterson, the president and director of research and Bankole Thompson, the founder and dean, as a national model that needs to be emulated around the country.

“Permit me to appreciatively applaud and lovingly laud both Tina Patterson and Bankole Thompson for your sterling and visionary leadership. Thank you for establishing a model that the rest of the us in the country need to not only emulate but execute,” Haynes said in his opening remarks. “It has been just a blessed privilege of mine to do some research on The PuLSE Institute after I received this invitation, and I am just completely blown away though not surprised that you are courageously and creatively opening the door to a new era when it comes to the economic empowerment of a people who have been often times politically pimped.”

He added, “And so I thank you so much for your courage, your creativity, your innovation and the way that you have inspired my own ministry and witness here in Dallas especially going forward.”

Haynes, a scholar of liberation theology, is one of the nation’s leading thinkers on the subject of making the church relevant in the 21st century. After earning his doctorate in ministry from the Graduate Theological Foundation, Dr. Haynes furthered his theological studies at Christ Church at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. His dissertation at Oxford was titled, “To Turn the World Upside Down: Church Growth in a Church Committed to Social Justice.”

Hayne’s deep commitment to social transformation in fighting poverty and inequality is central to his remarkable public witness reflected in his courageous and unrelenting championing of issues of civil and human rights, all of which have earned him the distinction and respect of many across the political spectrum.

For example, in 2013, Haynes, was invited to deliver a special prayer for former South African President and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela at the Washington National Cathedral during a National Memorial Service to honor the life of the 20th century liberator. Former Vice President Joe Biden, who led the national delegation of members of Congress and other leaders of the federal government spoke at the tribute for Mandela at the National Cathedral. He was recently inducted into the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame.