Rev. Dr. John A. Wicks, Jr.

Prostate cancer is a real crisis in African American communities. Black men are more than twice as likely to die from the disease as White men. During the Jackson Disparity Rally, Rev. Dr. John A. Wicks, Jr., Pastor at Mount Nebo Baptist Church, advises Black men to pursue early detection screening and visit PHENPSA.com.

Rev. Dr. John A. Wicks, Jr., is from Jackson, Mississippi, and has worked as an associate minister at New Hope Baptist Church in the City of Jackson. By August 1998, he began serving as an associate minister at New Hope Baptist Church in Jackson and then started working at Mount Nebo Baptist Church by August 2000, becoming the new pastor on March 25, 2001. He has received multiple awards including the Metro-Jackson chapter of the NAACP 2008 Medgar Evers Award, the Mississippi Gospel Music Awards’ 2011 Pastor of the Year honoree, and the 2017 Pastor of the Year Award from the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Awards program.

Rev. Dr. Wicks attended Jackson Public Schools until graduating from Murrah High School. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics from Alcorn State University and graduated at the top of his class as valedictorian. Rev. Dr. John Wicks also earned a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina as well as a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia. In addition, he taught computer engineering at Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama, and computer science at Jackson State University in Mississippi.