Long-time Seattle-area civil rights leader The Rev. Dr. Samuel McKinney will receive the first Hero of Faith Award from Bellevue’s Temple B’nai Torah.

The award, which acknowledges people in the community whose faith has inspired them to work to heal the world and to promote peace and justice, will be awarded at 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 16 at a special Shabbat (Sabbath) service in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King.

“The Hero of Faith award was created to honor those who inspire us to do the important work of tikkun olam, repair of the world,” said Rabbi James L. Mirel, senior rabbi of Temple B’nai Torah. “I can not think of a person more deserving of this first award than McKinney.”

McKinney led one of Seattle’s oldest and most prominent black churches, Mt. Zion Baptist Church, from 1958 until his retirement in 1998. Since 2005 he has served as an active pastor emeritus of the congregation.

McKinney was a friend and peer of King and in 1961 invited him to come speak in Seattle. McKinney was a founding member of the Seattle Civil Rights Commission and the Seattle Opportunities Industrialization Center, as well as a founder of Liberty Bank, the first black-owned bank in Seattle.

The temple is located at 15727 N.E. Fourth St.