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Recognizing and honoring Philadelphia’s Bishop Melvin Floyd, by renaming the 5200 block of Wayne Avenue “Bishop Melvin Floyd Way” to honor the life and legacy of Bishop Floyd, Founder and Pastor Agape Christian Chapel and the Neighborhood Crusades, Inc., where he tirelessly worked to prevent gang violence citywide and since 1970, successfully reaching youth and families for over 40 years.
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WHEREAS, Bishop Floyd was born in 1935 to Arthur and Sallie Mae Floyd, the youngest of five children. He grew up in North Philadelphia; and
WHEREAS, Bishop Floyd joined a local gang when he was about 11, but found religion at the age of 12 following a street preaching event, later joining a nearby church, and leaving the gang; and
WHEREAS, Bishop Floyd later joined the Army, serving in the Korean War from 1953 to 1955; and later joined the Philadelphia Police Department in 1959, serving several assignments including Juvenile Aid, and Gang Control Officer working for 17 exemplary years; and
WHEREAS, Before leaving the Police Department, Bishop Floyd received several national and local awards, such as Philadelphia’s Outstanding Policeman in 1968, and “Ten Outstanding Young Man of the Year” in 1969 for his work as a gang control officer, and also in 1969 was named one of the “10 Best Policemen in the World”, as well as the Philadelphia Award in 1975; and
WHEREAS, Bishop Floyd’s, loving wife, Elizabeth Anderson Floyd, who he’d married in 1962, encouraged him to do more about street violence, and following the senseless deaths of eight teenagers in one week in 1972, Bishop Floyd resigned from the Police Department to begin his mission ministering in the streets; and
WHEREAS, Bishop and Mrs. Floyd later started Teen Haven, at 19th Street and Susquehanna Avenue, offering ping-pong and other games, with a mix of Bible verses; and
WHEREAS, By 1987, the Floyds started, Agape Christian Chapel at Greene and Seymour Streets in Germantown, which grew served as the headquarters of the Neighborhood Crusades, Inc., and the Melvin Floyd School of Evangelism; and
WHEREAS, For more than forty years, Bishop Floyd rode throughout the city in his in his customized van with a casket, and a mannequin dressed up as a corpse, sitting on top of it, blasting gospel music out of the van, and attracting people to corner meetings where he would tell gruesome stories while showing homemade movies and slideshows depicting corpses and bloody scenes; and
WHEREAS, Throughout the years, Bishop Floyd produced and directed four films, produced, and directed five commercials on Drugs, Gang Warfare, and Teenage Alcoholism, received over 100 Awards and Citations, and was a featured educator and lecturer throughout the region; and
WHEREAS, The service in the community of this incredible servant of God is worthy of the honor in the neighborhood he housed his church; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Rename the 5200 block of Wayne Avenue “Bishop Melvin Floyd Way”, to honor the exemplary life and legacy of Bishop Melvin Floyd.
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