In February 1971, LeRoy Bailey Jr, an assistant minister at Golden Leaf Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee was called to be the second pastor of the First Baptist Church. He was licensed to preach in 1958; and ordained in 1966 by L. A. Hamblin. Bailey, a 1970 graduate of The College of the Bible at American Baptist College in Social Science. As an undergraduate, Bailey served as the 1969–1970 co-chairman of the student-faculty relations committee, chairman of the recruitment committee of the School of Religion and the National president of Alpha Theta Nu Omega theological fraternity.