(News4usonline) - Rev. Dr. Cecil "Chip" Murray, an icon to the Los Angeles community during the 1992 riots, passed away at the age of 94 on April 5, 2024. He was the first pastor of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles in 1977. During his time as a pastor, he transformed a small congregation of 250 into an 18,000-person church with multi-million dollar community and economic development programs that brought many jobs and housing, according to the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture website. We are humbled and honored to continue the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Cecil L. Murray. His family has asked donations to be directed to Rev. Murray’s Circle of Support: https://t.co/D9ZLdZ2KhG. We will share the livestream for his funeral services here next week. pic.twitter.com/Udvosn5iSQ— USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture (@usccrcc) April 18, 2024 He later was appointed as the John R. Tansey Chair of Christian Ethics in the School of Religion at the University of Southern California. Dr. Anthony Asadullah Samad, who is the Executive Director of the Mervyn Dymally African American Political and Economic Institute (MDAAPEI) on the campus of California State Dominguez Hills, said Rev. Murray was a lot of things to a lot of people. “Reverend Murray was not just a icon in the Los Angeles community,” said Samad. “Not just the  Black Los Angeles community, but the Los Angeles community. But he was also a personal mentor.” Samad first joined  First AME Church in 1981 and when he left the church, Rev. Murray was a senior pastor at the time. The significance that Rev. Murray was that he continued the tradition of Black radical Christian theology from a church that had religious activists. “What projected First AME into the national limelight was on the day that the four police officers were pronounced not guilty, April 29, 1992,” said Samad. “Tom Bradley was holding a town hall gathering, sort of to pray for the city. And we came out of the church and the church was on fire.” California mourns the passing of Reverend Dr. Cecil Murray—a landmark civil rights activist and spiritual leader. He was a tower of strength for the Black community in Los Angeles. His impact will continue to be felt by millions for generations to come.https://t.co/wS67HnFJsc— California Governor (@CAgovernor) April 11, 2024 First AME Church became “the center of the frustration and expressions of the Black community” according to Samad. However, it was not just the Black community that Rev. Murray had a direct impact on. He also reached out to the Latino and Asian communities as well. Under Rev. Murray's leadership, First AME Church grew from roughly 250 members to more than 18,000 members by the time he retired 27 years later. “Cecil Murray basically took what was a dying congregation and built it over a 28-year period,” said Samad. Rev. Murray was born on September 26, 1929, in Lakeland, Florida. He grew up in the segregated South. He graduated from Florida  Agricultural and Mechanical University and then earned his PhD from the School of Theology at Claremont College. After the 1992 Los Angeles riots, Rev. Murray and First AME Church began to rebuild the L.A community. “Through a grant from State Farm, (they) built a nonprofit called L.A. Renaissance that began to build housing and build businesses and rebuild what had been destroyed in the L.A. riots of 92,” said Samad. “So first AME became the go-to location for community mobilization. And Reverend Chip Murray was that focus.” “Rev. Murray became the model for using religion and using churches to advocate for the poor,” Samad added. After Rev. Murray retired from the First AME Church after 27 years, he then began teaching his theology around social advocacy and fighting social injustice where he would teach young ministers how to use the church to address social injustices. I was honored to celebrate the distinguished career of Rev. Cecil Murray. Incredible legacy of bridging communities and uplifting our world. https://t.co/HBHXiWfMtl pic.twitter.com/aekja08DGo— Carol Folt (@PresidentFolt) September 23, 2022 He also had a center named after him, the Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement. The center helps faith leaders to transform underserved communities. But besides being an icon to the greater Los Angeles community and being the backbone of the Black residents during a time of instability, Rev. Murray was a person with a good heart, Samad said. “He was a beautiful person, always positive. There was a lesson in every engagement with him in terms of helping people sort through differences, mitigating conflict,” Samad remarked. “He never closed the church doors when the community was trying to address an issue.” “So he was a person who basically sought to bring people together and he'll be remembered for that. He'll be remembered as a builder, as a peacemaker. Blessed are the peacemakers, so that they will inherit the earth. So that will be his legacy and his memory,” added Samad. Top Image Caption: FILE - The Rev. Cecil Murray delivers a benediction at the conclusion of a memorial service, at the Shrine Auditorium, Wednesday, April 18, 2012, in Los Angeles. Murray, an influential pastor and civil rights leader who gained international attention for his efforts to help Los Angeles recover from one of the country's worst race riots, died Friday, April 5, 2024. He was 94. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool, File) Read the full article