Before offering the closing prayer at the end of last Sunday’s sermon, Pastor Mike McClure Jr. asked for prayer — for his grandfather.

McClure, senior pastor of the Rock City Church (and my pastor), is the grandson of Bishop Calvin Woods, among the last of the lions of the civil rights movement. Among the last who walked and marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The retired pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Norwood and former president of the Birmingham chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference is 92 years old and embarking upon his final walk, McClure said.

“He’s close to that time; health is starting to finally catch up with him. Doctors sent him home yesterday and just said there’s nothing else they can do.”

McClure shared that Woods was one of the first African Americans to sit at the lunch counter at Woolworth’s in Birmingham, protesting to end the chain’s refusal to serve Black people.

“He was beaten so we can eat at whatever restaurant we want,” McClure said. “So when you go eat today, you go because people like him, and the Birmingham foot soldiers, laid their lives on the line for it.

He also shared a humorous moment from their most recent visit.

“He said something to me this past week that messed me up,” McClure began. “You get old and the closer you get to glory, your filter gets taken, right? I walked in and he said, ‘Boy, I never thought in a million years it would be you taking care of me.’ Then he said, “We didn’t think you was going to be nothing. You were so bad.’

“Yeah, I was a bad kid,” McClure added.

In 2022, McClure interviewed his grandfather for The Birmingham Times at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. “Looking back over your life,” the grandson asked, “out of all the things you’ve accomplished that helped other people, what did it cost you?”

“It [gave] me an opportunity to learn more about God,” Woods said. He promised me when I was a young man that he would be with me always . . . And I heard that. I remember that. So as a result of me being obedient and going through the pain, I learned more about Him. He won’t forsake you. That doesn’t mean you won’t go through pain but just having that assurance of his Word that ‘I’m with you always’.”

Asked about his recollections of King, Wood responded: “His humanness. Dr. King’s humanness. He didn’t want us to forget that he was a human being. He was very humble, very humble. He and I got so close because I was bullheaded. A lot of them thought it was hurting me. When we would get in meetings, I didn’t always agree with everybody on the outside. But he was paying attention to that. . . . They told him up at the City Hall don’t bring me back. Said ‘don’t bring that Calvin Woods.’ They tried to kick me off the negotiating committee [between prominent Black citizens and the city’s business leadership over desegregating Birmingham]. … Dr. King had respect for me standing up.”

McClure said he hopes to be able to honor his grandfather next Sunday at Rock City.

“I just love him so much. Everything I am and everything that I desire to be — between him and my dad [Mike McClure, Sr.] — that’s what I saw growing up,” he said. “And so for me, I’m just making sure I steward this season well. I don’t like that people have to be gone to get their flowers. He’s lived a long life, a long, prosperous, productive life. But still say a prayer for him and my parents and all my uncles and aunties.

“He’s been so weak, so, so, so weak; we practically had to carry him out of the house and put him in the car to go to the hospital. I’m praying that the Lord gives him some more strength and keeps him on this side of heaven because I would love for him to come here on Sunday and we honor him. I love him so much. Man, that’s my granddaddy. I want to give him his flowers while he can still see them.”