Today we’d like to introduce you to Pastor Thomas Dixon, who shares his story with us below:
69-year-old Thomas Dixon, a pastor and community advocate, is a product of the housing projects of Chicago. A former alcoholic and drug addict (30 years) and an ex-felon who served time in prison (released in 2001), Pastor Dixon, his wife and his family have made South Carolina their home since 1985 after being stationed in North Charleston with the U.S. Navy.
In 2004, Dixon founded Summerville Christian Fellowship which he pastored until 2012 when the call of social justice took him out of the pulpit and into the streets. Pastor Dixon is most notably recognized for his peacekeeping efforts in North Charleston in the aftermath of the Walter Scott officer-involved shooting and in Charleston after a racially motivated attack inside of Mother Emanuel AME Church in which 9 Black churchgoers were murdered by a white supremacist after a Bible study.
Over the years, Pastor Dixon has worked with a variety of social justice organizations, including the SC Crime Reduction Coalition, SC Progressive Network, the Fight for 15, the Quality Education Project, Healthcare Workers United, Moms Demand Action, Arm-In-Arm, and his own organization: The Coalition – People United to Take Back Our Community. In 2017, Pastor Dixon was elected for a third term as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Charleston Alliance for Fair Employment (C.A.F.E.). And in November of 2017, he was elected to the Board of Directors with Brady United (formerly the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence), a seat that he continues to hold to date. Pastor Dixon’s advocacy has spanned the social justice gamut, everything from standing up for LGBTQ and women’s rights to fighting for rapid transit, accessible housing, affordable healthcare, public education and ending homelessness.
Over the years, Pastor Dixon has been honored by a diversity of organizations including the Geechee One Awards (2013) and Charleston Black Pride (2021), and in 2018, he was awarded the Wiley A. Branton Issues Symposium Award by the National Bar Association for his work in gun violence prevention. Most recently, in 2021, Pastor Dixon was awarded the Harvey
Gantt Triumph Award for Lasting Contributions to Civil and Human Rights by the Greater Charleston YWCA, an award previously bestowed on the late Congressman John Lewis, the late Sen Robert Kennedy, and Lowcountry legends Esau Jenkins and Septima P. Clark. And in his advocacy, he was also instrumental
in filing a lawsuit that shut down the South Carolina Secessionist Party (an online white supremacist group), it’s leader and its online presence.
In 2016, Pastor Dixon was South Carolina’s Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, and he ran for mayor of the city of North Charleston, SC in 2019. Currently, he serves as Associate Pastor at Life Community Church in Mt Pleasant, SC.
Pastor Dixon and his wife, Vanessa, have been married for 38 years. They have two adult married children, Jason (Sharlee) and Jasmine (Allah), and they have three grandchildren: Benjamin II, Brooklyn and Brody.
Coming from those humble beginnings in the projects of Chicago, it’s obvious that Thomas Dixon has never let his surroundings define who he is and what he can or cannot achieve. He has dared to dream and has worked diligently to make those dreams a reality for himself, for his family and for his community.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
After growing up in the projects of Chicago, in 1982, I realized that, after 12 years of constant drug and alcohol abuse, at the age of 30, I was hopelessly addicted. I had recently had a son and I asked myself honestly what would I be able to offer this child in 10 years? My answer? I would either be dead or in jail in 10 years if I stayed on the track I was on.
So, during a night of binging, I thought to myself…maybe I could join the military if I wasn’t too old (again, I was 30 years old at the time). I figured if I joined the Navy 1) I could get away from the drugs and the lifestyle that I literally hated but did not know how to stop, 2) I could get a steady paycheck in order to take care of my son and his mother and 3), in the military, I would have access to the best healthcare and benefits for my child and his mother. Great plan, but it was a flawed plan. I didn’t realize that I couldn’t move away from the demons. Everywhere I went, they followed me, only the faces changed. So, after a very troubled, drug-filled, discipline-laced six years, I was discharged from the Navy…honorably discharged, by God’s grace. And I came home from the military a worse drug addict and alcoholic than I was when I went in.
And those addictions continued to plagued me for the next ten years, once again all the while hating myself and the life I was living (which wasn’t living at all).
So, in 1999, after several drug-related run-ins with the law, I ended up in prison in the South Carolina Department of Corrections. And while I was detained in the local County jails awaiting court, that is where the change in my heart began to take place, And, when I finally got sentenced to prison that year, I was finally on the road to the cleansing of my heart that I so desperately wanted; a cleansing of my mind, body and soul that I had started seeking nearly 20 years earlier. What the Navy couldn’t do, God and prison did.
I exited from the prison system in 2001 and hit the ground running trying to clean up what I had messed up. And now, 20 years’ post-prison…well, I’ve already listed the accomplishments I’ve made (uh, that God has made through me). Today, after over 30 years of alcohol and drug addictions, prison time, and behaviors that I am not proud of, today I interact directly and am friends with police chiefs, mayors, elected officials and corporate executives while still being able to relate to and engage with the formerly incarcerated, drug addicts, gang members and urban youths.
Was the road to the space I’m in now smooth? Absolutely not! Were there struggles along the way? Most definitely! But I would not be the person I am today had I not gone through the struggles of yesterday. In all of my trials…the good, the bad and the ugly…I was being equipped to serve my community, all of my community, from an unbiased, experience-based perspective that has helped me to be accepted in many places and with many people where others will be rejected.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a social justice advocate whose gifting has not limited me to championing a specific social justice issue. My advocacy has reached into every aspect of life where the civil and human rights of others have been denied.
Dr. King wrote: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. What affects one directly affects all indirectly.” In other words, he was saying that there is an intersection between all of the injustices that we face. And even though I might not be directly affected by the injustice someone else is experiencing, I can and will be affected indirectly by that injustice somewhere along the way. Once I internalized and embraced that message, I realized that I could not be a single-issue advocate, that I had to address injustice on from a multi-tiered approach. While others are
gifted to advocate for a single cause or two, I have been called to address and confront injustice on all levels.
So, my advocacy includes but is not limited to equal rights, women’s rights, LBGTQ rights, workers’ rights, senior’s rights, veteran’s rights, voting rights, universal healthcare, quality public education, ending gun violence, eliminating food deserts, rapid transit, accessible housing, ending gentrification, advocating for the homeless, and environmental justice.
What matters most to you?
What matters most to me? Holding our nation to the last six words of the Pledge of Allegiance. We teach our children early on to pledge allegiance to a flag that represents a nation “with liberty and justice for all.” I don’t know what nation they are referring to but the United States of America has NEVER been a nation “with liberty and justice for all.” And teaching this to our children is wrong.
What this does, teaching children that we are a nation “with liberty and justice for all”, it plants the seeds of privilege in the hearts of little white children who will grow up to see “liberty and justice” work in their favor while little Black children will grow up frustrated, realizing they’ve been lied to by their nation and that “liberty and justice” in America is NOT for all…in the nation that their ancestors actually built.
So, it is our job, it is our duty to make sure that our nation lives up to this pledge. That’s why I fight. It’s all about preserving integrity in our nation and a future for all of our children.
Contact Info:
- Email: tad3189@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/dixon4justice
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/thomas.dixon.391
- Twitter: twitter.com/dixon4justice
- Youtube: YouTube.com/c/LifeLIVEwithPastorDixon
Image Credits:
William “Will” Frye
