Jerry Falwell

Jerry Falwell Sr. (1933–2007) was an American Baptist pastor and televangelist. In 1956 he founded Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, which grew into a large congregation and became the base for his national media ministry. Falwell helped organize the Moral Majority in 1979, a political advocacy group associated with the rise of the Religious Right in U.S. politics. He also founded Lynchburg Baptist College in 1971, later renamed Liberty University, serving as its longtime leader. Falwell remained a prominent public voice on religion and politics until his death in 2007.