Michael E. Haynes

Michael E. Haynes (born May 9, 1927) is an American minister and former politician in the state of Massachusetts. He was educated at Shelton State Community College and earned his bachelor's degree from New England School of Theology in 1949.^[1][2] He served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1965 to 1968, representing Roxbury, Massachusetts.^[3] He has also been 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.^[4][5]

During the 1960s and 1970s Haynes played an active role in the civil rights movement. In 1965, he helped plan Martin Luther King Jr.'s entrance into Boston when he came to speak on Boston Common that spring. The major focus of King's speech on April 23 was school desegregation in Boston.^[6]

The Haynes Early Education school located in Roxbury was aptly named in his honor.^[7]

On 9 November 2006, Northeastern University President Joseph E. Aoun 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, President Aoun appointed Joseph D. Warren, at that time Special Assistant to the Director of Government Relations and Community Affairs, to oversee the Lower Roxbury Black History Project. Warren appointed an advisory board consisting of Rev. Michael E. Haynes, formerly of Roxbury's Twelfth Baptist Church, Massachusetts State Representative Byron Rushing, Northeastern University Archivist Joan D. Krizack, and Northeastern University history professors. ^[8]

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