Donte Hickman

Donte Lamont Hickman is an American preacher. He was born and raised in Edmondson Village, a west Baltimore community. (Muth, 2019) He was licensed to preach at 17 years of age and ordained as a Reverend at the Gillis Memorial Christian Community Church. Reverend Hickman is a graduate of the Wiley College in Marshall, Texas and received his Master of Divinity degree from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary located at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. And he earned the Doctor of Ministry degree from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. (Muth, 2019).
== Biography ==
In 2002 he was called to be the fourth pastor of the Southern Baptist Church in Baltimore, Md. where he has grown the church to over 4,000 members and three ministry locations statewide. Hickman was consecrated as a Bishop in 2018 at the Global United Fellowship Gathering in Greensboro, NC and has served as the Bishop of Pastors in that Fellowship of over 1000 pastors across the world.
Bishop Donte Hickman organized the Mary Harvin Transformation Canter Community Development Corporation to restore people and rebuild properties in east Baltimore and beyond. (Simmons, 2020) Through this CDC of the Southern Baptist Church he has acquired several hundred properties within the blighted community of Broadway East in east Baltimore to develop affordable housing for the elderly and multi-families and other mixed use development projects and amenities to transform and revitalize the community and provide accessibility, affordability and amenities to underserved residents.Bishop Hickman also through the Mary Harvin Transformation Center CDC led and sponsored the East Baltimore Revitalization Plan, a grassroots master plan that was adopted by the city of Baltimore’s Department of Planning in September 2018.
Bishop Hickman was one of the leading ministers during the riots after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody. He advocated for justice, peaceful protests, health and economic parity and community development{{cite news |last1=Shane |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/29/us/baltimore-riots-are-another-scar-on-a-city-battered-by-neglect.html |date=2015 |title=Baltimore Riots Are Another Scar on a City Long Battered by Neglect} and he led a group of ministers on a march in the middle of riots that enabled the police and fire department to put out a major fire even while his developing Mary Harvin Transformation Venter and Senior Housing project was being burned to the ground unbeknownst to him. But they were fortunate to rebuild by the very next year on the anniversary date of the fire,
Hickman is a national advocate for community development in oppressed and neglected communities. He worked with the White House to strive make Opportunity Zone legislation relevant and palatable for distressed urban communities. Hickman also helped the Governor and the State of Maryland to enact the Civil Marriage and Religious Protection Act to provide freedom of choice as well as religious practice to citizens and faith based institutions regarding same-sex marriage.
Hickman is the author of two books entitled, The Power of Being Underestimated and Rising From The Ashes. Bishop Hickman is married to the former Danielle Chere’ Curtis, a licensed clinical therapist who is also the founder and owner of Resurgence Counseling Services. And they are the parents of Donte’ Lamont Hickman, Jr. and Dawson Luke Hickman.
Category:American preacher
Category:People from Baltimore