Cyndi Loza

Rev. Shelvin Jerome Hall: 1916-2007

Rev. Shelvin Jerome Hall, an advocate for community services on the West Side and one of the few who welcomed Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his message of equality to Chicago, died Monday.

As a highly regarded pastor of the Friendship Baptist Church for 51 years, Rev. Hall was a proponent of civil rights and fair housing and brought King here in the mid-1960s at a time when no one else would.

He was a proponent of education and the opportunities it could bring, and he saw it realized in the success of his own children: two jurists and a state schools administrator.

One of Rev. Hall’s daughters, Illinois Appellate Court Justice Shelvin Louise M. Hall, recalls how surprised at how attentive King was when she was introduced to him by her father. She said the encounter is one of the reasons she became a civil rights lawyer, and she owes that experience to her father.

“Dad was the one that brought us in and exposed us to all the [prominent] people,” Hall said. Rev. Hall died after suffering cardiac arrest in West Suburban Resurrection Hospital in Oak Park 20 days after the death of his wife of 62 years, Lucy M. Hall. He was 91.

Rev. Hall was the moderator of the Salem Baptist District Association in the 1960s and president of the Baptist General State Convention of Illinois Inc. in the 1990s.

“He was fair and honest and forthright. He tried to be just in all his dealings and he would go out of his way to defend the person with the short end of the stick,” said Rev. L.K. Curry of Emmanuel Baptist Church, who was treasurer of both of those organizations.

Rev. Hall also raised the bar on scholarships awarded by the Baptist Convention while he served as president, actually quadrupling those numbers, said Rev. Alvin Love, the current president of the convention. When Rev. Hall began his term, the organization provided $2,000 in aid. By the time he ended his two terms, the amount of financial aid raised to $10,000.

“Any organization that he was part of he wanted to make sure that when he left, it it was in better shape then when he started,” said Love.

In his last sermon at Friendship Baptist in November 2006, Rev. Hall said that his proudest achievement was building a church for his flock with a design that reflected their African roots.

“When I wanted to build an African hut, they said, ‘You’re crazy.’ I said, ‘Well, that’s par for the course,’ ” Rev. Hall reflected in an interview that day with the Chicago Sun-Times.

“You have German structures. You have Irish structures. You have Italian structures. Why can’t we have something that says Africa?”

The church, with the wood for its pews imported from Mozambique, stands at Jackson and Laramie. Its bell tower is named after King.

In addition to his daughter Shelvin Hall, Rev. Hall is survived by another daughter, New York State Supreme Court Justice L. Priscilla Hall; his son, Lewis J. Hall, supervisor of the New York State Department of Higher Education; and a granddaughter, Naima Lillian Hall.

Visitation is noon to 6 p.m. Friday at Friendship Baptist Church, 5200 W. Jackson Blvd., followed by a memorial service until 8 p.m. Visitation continues at 8 to 10 a.m. Saturday, with funeral service at 10 a.m. Burial is in Washington Memory Garden, Homewood.