1924-2002
Rev. John Lennis Preciphs was a Methodist minister, activist, and community organizer who was active in the local civil rights struggle for over 25 years.
Born in Groesbeck, Texas, in 1924, Preciphs served in the U.S. Navy before earning his Master of Divinity degree from the Interdenominational Theological Center of Atlanta, Georgia. Over the course of his career, Preciphs pastored 12 churches, mostly throughout the South.
In June 1966, he was appointed to head the Methodist Inner City Parish in Kansas City. Through the parish’s three “storefront churches,” Preciphs pursued his passion for ministering to the community’s most vulnerable members. He worked with sex workers, at-risk youth, and those suffering from alcoholism and homelessness, though he would later recall that his most important work was the parish’s free breakfast program for low-income families, which Preciphs ran in collaboration with the local chapter of the Black Panther Party.
Shortly after his appointment to the Inner City Parish, Preciphs became the elected clergy vice-president of the newly formed Council for United Action. The organization used civil disobedience to protest police brutality, advocated for the integration of public schools, and boycotted local businesses accused of unfair hiring practices. He also helped establish the Kansas City chapter of the National Welfare Rights Organization, and was active in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the NAACP, and the Kansas City Human Relations Commission.
As a minister, Preciphs served as pastor of St. James United Methodist Church, Paseo United Methodist Church, and ultimately Swope Park United Methodist Church, from which he retired in 1991. At that time, when asked if he would continue to play a role in community activism, Preciphs said that he would take a back seat to younger leaders: “When you’ve sustained a lot of blows, you bring into an organization an admonishment to be careful. It impedes the progress of those who are gung-ho and who are striving for the promises to be fulfilled.” Preciphs died in Kansas City on Oct. 17, 2002.