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Clay Evans (born June 25, 1925) is an African American Baptist pastor and founder of the influential Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago, Illinois famous for its gospel music infused Sunday service and choir. Rev. Clay Evans released his first musical project in 1984, What He’s Done For Me with Savoy Records. All-in-all, he has had eleven albums that have charted on the Billboard Gospel Albums chart over the course of his career. He received a nomination for the Best Gospel Album at the 1997 Soul Train Music Awards.
Evans was born on June 25, 1925, in Brownsville, Tennessee, to Henry Clay and Estanauly Evans. He was a graduate of Carver High School, then he moved onto Chicago Baptist Institute for seminary education. He attended Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, along with The University of Chicago Divinity School. He was ordained to be a Baptist minister in 1950, and he founded Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago, Illinois on September 10, 1950 with five founding members. His sermons were broadcast on radio and television.
In 1965, Rev. Evans joined Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., to promote the civil rights movement in Chicago. In 1971 they founded the Operation PUSH coalition, to encourage black self-help. Evans served as chairman of the organization from 1971 and 1976, and he is currently its chairman emeritus. He led his church until December 8, 2000, when Charles Jenkins succeeded him as senior pastor.