Rev. Dr. Darrell Cummings
Chairman, West Virginia Human Rights Commission
Dr. Darrell Cummings was born in San Antonio, Texas and is a graduate of Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland State College, Internal Auditor Federal Reserve School, Moody Bible School, and the Ashtabula Bible School, where he received his Doctorate in Theology.
Rev. Dr. Cummings founded Greater Love Pentecostal Church in Ashtabula, OH, in 1980, and remained there for over a decade. On June 15, 1992, Dr. Cummings became the pastor of Bethlehem Apostolic Temple. He has worked avidly in the church since he was licensed as a minister at age of sixteen, which spans some 30 plus years.
Rev. Dr. Cummings has served as a leader and officer in the religious community, for over two decades; including serving as the former Vice-President of the Wheeling Clergy Council; the former Chairman of the Evangelism Committee for the Greater Wheeling Council of Churches; the former Chairman for the Martin Luther King Community Celebration for the Ohio Valley, and presently serves as the President of the Ohio Valley Pastor’s Association.
In 1997, Rev. Dr. Cummings was among those awarded “Man of the Year” by the Wheeling NAACP; and receiving the “Man of the Year” award from the African American Heritage of the Ohio Valley Program in 2009. He was awarded Civil Rights Leader of the Year” by the West Virginia Educators Association, and was given the honor of serving as Chaplain for the West Virginia Legislature, in both the Senate and the House. Rev. Cummings serves on several boards including Habitat for Humanity, the Wheeling Police Commission, Youth Services Board of Wheeling, and the West Virginia Northern Community College. He is also a recipient of the “St. Francis Xavier Award” from the student government of Wheeling Jesuit University. Pastor Cummings was appointed as a Commissioner for the WV Human Rights Commission in August of 2006, by former Governor Joe Manchin, III of West Virginia, and currently serves as Chairman.
Former Governor Manchin also recognized Rev. Dr. Cummings as a Distinguished Mountaineer of the year in 2010. Rev. Cummings writes weekly and monthly guest editorials for several newspapers in the Ohio Valley, and serves in the Chaplain Department of two State Prisons, a Nursing Home and two hospitals.
Pastor Cummings and his wife have three children: Melanie Faith, Claude Vaughn and Richard Williams Cummings.