Cincinnati, USA - The Progressive National Baptist Convention, the denominational home of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other major civil rights figures, has a new president.
The Rev. T. DeWitt Smith will succeed the Rev. Major L. Jemison as leader of the denomination, one of four major black Baptist groups in the country.
Jemison is ending his four-year term.
Smith, senior pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Atlanta, was the denomination's first vice president. It is customary for the person in that position to become president.
He ran uncontested and his election was announced Aug. 11, during the Baptist group's annual meeting in Cincinnati.
Smith holds many leadership posts within the denomination, including serving on the Progressive National Baptist executive board and the economic development arm of the group.
He serves on the governing boards of the National Council of Churches and the Baptist World Alliance, and is a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The Progressive National Baptist Convention claims a membership of more than 2,000 churches and more than 2 million congregants.