BROKEN ARROW, Okla. (BP) — Emerson Falls, pastor of Glorieta Baptist Church in Oklahoma City and a member of the Sac and Fox and Choctaw tribes, was elected as the first Native American president of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma Nov. 11.
Messengers affirmed Falls in a close race with Doug Melton, pastor of Southern Hills Baptist Church in Oklahoma City.
Immediately after Falls's election, convention officials scrambled to confirm that he was the first Native American to be elected president of the Oklahoma convention, which formally organized in 1906.
“I'm sure there has been no president of the BGCO who claimed to be or promoted himself as a Native American since its formation in 1906,” said J.M. Gaskin, Oklahoma Baptist historian and former historical secretary of the BGCO.