The Reverend Dr. Don Darius Butler, a native of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is pastor of First Missionary Baptist Church in Huntsville, Alabama. From 2009 to 2019, he led Tabernacle Community Baptist Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Dr. Butler is currently a board member and recently completed two terms (2016-2021) as board chair for American Baptist College in Nashville, TN. He is a former board member for So Send I You, Inc., an African-American global missions initiative, Milwaukee Associates-In-Ministry, a multi-church collaborative in Milwaukee and was admitted to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Board of Preachers at Morehouse College, Atlanta GA.
In commitment to children, Butler’s First Missionary Baptist Church established and operates its own school, the Julius R. Scruggs Child Development Center & Academy, and through its FMBC Foundation, contributes $15,000 annually to Village of Promise Family Enrichment Center supporting Alabama’s first CDF Freedom School launched in 2013.
He is a summa cum laude graduate of American Baptist College who went on to earn the Master of Divinity degree from Vanderbilt University and Doctor of Ministry degree from Duke University. Butler’s care for children and health was demonstrated professionally in service as chaplain for Norton Healthcare and Kosair Children’s Hospital. Following the fatal shooting of a third-grader in Milwaukee, Butler launched a gun buyback effort which took more than 300 weapons off the street. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Butler elevated the conversation by hosting a town hall forum with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Geneva Reed-Veal, the mother of Sandra Bland.