Lipscomb University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day service featured Dr. T.B. Boyd, III as the annual speaker. Dr. Boyd is President/CEO of the R.H. Boyd Publishing company, a leading producer of literature and church supplies for more than 100 years. He spoke at the chapel service on the Lipscomb University campus on Tuesday, Jan. 21.
Boyd urged the Lipscomb students to never forget their history, encouraging them to support many of the historic organizations that have helped to build the society we have today. He mentioned the NAACP, the National Baptist Congress and the former National Baptist Publishing Board (now R.H. Boyd Publishing).
He said that Dr. King’s legacy shoud speak to America as a nation. “Dr. King’s legacy should tell us that we, as a nation … have to keep developing and keep giving of ourselves to become what we know we should be,” said Boyd from the stage in Allen Arena.
“As individual children of the cross, our dreams are not all the same. But I know, you could all agree, that all of you should have something in common with the dream of Martin Luther King,” he said. “He dreamt of freedom and equality. He had a dream that was inclusive of self-help and self-pride. This great man left a message which will reign through the ages. That we, as a nation, must have respect for ourselves, must have respect for others, and we must believe in others, as a nation.”
Boyd’s talk at Lipscomb was part of a week-long slate of campus events including participation in a multi-college service day on Jan. 18, a change drive benefiting Youth Life Learning Centers, an MLK birthday celebration with birthday cake and participation in the MLK Walk at Tennessee State University.
Boyd talked with faculty and students at a coffee reception before his speech. Lipscomb’s weekly, The Gathering, draws more than 2,000 undergraduates each week.
About Dr. T.B. Boyd, III
Boyd was elected president and CEO of R.H. Boyd Publishing (then called the National Baptist Publishing Board) in 1979, following a long family tradition that began with founder Richard Henry Boyd, a former slave who became a preacher after emancipation and saw a need to include the African American experience within the available religious literature of the day. More than 100 years later. R.H. Boyd Publishing produces millions of periodicals distributed to churches, individuals and book stores throughout the United States and the world.
Boyd is the fourth president of the family-run business. He began working in the company’s bindery and mailing rooms as a high school student and became a full-time employee in 1969 after graduation from Tennessee State University. He worked his way up, coordinating the construction of a new corporate headquarters; becoming a member of the board of directors in 1976, and compiling and introducing a new hymnal – the National Baptist Hymnal – which became one of the best-selling books in America.
Boyd has a Doctor of Divinity and a Doctor of Letters from Shreveport Bible College. He is a member of the Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church.
An active citizen in Nashville, he serves has served on the boards for the Citizens Bank and Trust Company; First Union Bank, as the chairman of the United Negro College Fund Telethon; as the vice chairman of the Meharry Medical College board of trustees; and as the inaugural president of the 100 Black Men of Middle Tennessee.
