Boise Kimber

Nationally, he serves as Director of Rev Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, Inc., the Conference of National Black Churches, and as Executive Director of the Social Justice Initiative.

In 2016 Don Vaccaro and Rev Kimber launched Grace Church Websites, a non-profit that offers local churches and nonprofit groups in the New Haven area a wide variety of free Web-related services, including domain registration, website maintenance, annual domain renewal, content management system, and hosting. Since February 2016, the company has worked with more than 600 churches and nonprofit organizations to launch free websites.

In 2014 Kimber partnered with a local businessman to announce the launch of a $1 million loan program for urban churches. Additionally, he and the same businessman have been conducting job fairs in urban churches throughout Connecticut.

Kimber is president of the Connecticut Missionary Baptist State Convention, and in 2013 was a candidate for president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., the nation’s oldest and largest African-American religious group. While addressing the Louisiana Missionary Baptist State Convention (LMBSC) in November 2013, Kimber said,

In July 2013, Kimber led a coalition of religious and social groups in a "Justice for Trayvon" vigil to press the federal government to investigate civil rights charges against George Zimmerman. Kimber said, "How many more times do we have to rally around justice for our children? How many more courts will free overzealous vigilantes who gun down unarmed American citizens and cry self-defense? Black and Brown American teens should feel confident that the American justice system also works for them; the Zimmerman acquittal tells them otherwise."

In 2012 he hosted Sharpton at a get-out-the-vote rally.

In his concurring opinion in Ricci v. DeStefano (2009), Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito singled out Kimber for having political motivations in his decision to set aside the results. This brought Kimber into the center of the controversy and led to mass media attention. Journalist Emily Bazelon of Slate referred to Kimber as "a convenient example of small-time race baiting and semi-thuggery."

As Chairman of the New Haven Fire Commission, in 2004, Kimber lobbied with other members to set aside the results of a firefighter's promotion exam, as no blacks qualified highly enough to have a chance at the available slots. Using the exam results would have promoted whites and a Latino firefighter to the available upper positions. The 20 firefighters who qualified for promotion under this exam filed suit against the city for its action.

In 2001 Kimber participated in a Congressional Lunch of Ministers; participants talked about revitalizing black and urban communities and the role of social institutions such as church and family in meeting that goal.

In 1996, Kimber was convicted of stealing nearly $4,000 in burial expenses from an elderly New Haven woman while he was managing a funeral home for the owner, who was in prison at the time.

In 1981, Kimber completed his undergraduate studies at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, and in 1997, he earned a Master of Arts Degree in Religious Life from Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut. In May 2001, he completed his Doctorate Degree in Ministry at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. His approved dissertation title was Developing a Social Justice Consciousness in a Local Congregation.

Boise Kimber (born February 9, 1959) is an American Baptist minister and civil rights activist. He is the pastor of First Calvary Baptist churches in New Haven and Hartford, Connecticut.

Boise Kimber was born in 1959 in Phenix City, Alabama to parents Milburn and Ruthie Kimber; he was the middle child of three children. He attended local schools and graduated from Central High School. Raised in the Baptist Church, he began preaching at age 15.