The Reverend Dr. William Augustus Jones, Jr. (1934-2006), was a Baptist preacher, activist, author, professor, and pastor of Brooklyn’s Bethany Baptist Church for forty-three years.

Reverend Jones became involved in and served as national president of Operation Breadbasket, the economic arm of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference founded by Martin Luther King, Jr. He was chair of the New York Chapter of SCLC in the late 1960’s and actively took part in numerous protests, including a boycott against the Atlantic & Pacific stores for their discrimination against blacks. He was a member of the Progressive National Baptist Convention served as its President from 1978-80.

In 1962, Reverend Jones arrived at Brooklyn’s Bethany Baptist Church as pastor. The Bethany Hour, a weekly broadcast ministry, began recording for the radio starting in 1975 and for television starting in 1990. These digitized recordings of The Bethany Hour were taken from the cassettes, audio reels and VHS tapes that are currently a part of the Brooklyn College Archives collection, The Papers of William Augustus Jones Jr. The recordings feature sermons by the late Rev. Jones as well as other recordings, such as portions of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, a television interview with Rev. Jones and sermons he has given at churches other than Bethany Baptist.

Many of the recordings have been split into two digital files and therefore you will see titles with (1 of 2) or (2 of 2). Most of the descriptions include the sermon start time. While a majority of the recordings have been edited down for the broadcast radio hour, you will also find some unedited church services within this collection that include community announcements from Jones or other church members and often additional congregational singing and prayer. Please contact the archives if you need assistance

Brooklyn College Archives and Special Collections