Posted on 06/05/2005 3:33:42 AM PDT by WKB
JACKSON, Miss. -- The Rev. Keith Tonkel knew signing a simple statement against racism could put his life and those of his colleagues in peril. It was four decades ago and Mississippi remained a stronghold of segregation.
The white minister signed the document anyway.
The "Born of Conviction" statement, benign by today's standards, denounced racism, communism and the threatened closure of public schools that were facing integration. Some of those 28 white United Methodist ministers who publicly opposed segregation will reunite Monday in Mississippi.
In 1963, they signed their names, mailed the statement to newspapers and waited.
The backlash was swift.
Some of the ministers were ousted by their congregations and fled Mississippi under death threats. Others left freely.
Still others, including Tonkel, stayed to wage an evangelical battle against the evil of racism.
"I said to them, 'I'm only signing this thing with the understanding we're committed to staying in Mississippi,'" Tonkel said. "How can you flesh out a conviction if you're absent? I thought our responsibility was to see what we can create that would be inclusive."
Today, the 69-year-old is pastor of Wells United Methodist Church, an interracial congregation in Jackson. He's led the church since 1969.
Tonkel doesn't like to dwell on the 1963 document or its fallout, but he plans to attend Monday's "Born of Conviction" reunion _ the ministers' first gathering in 42 years.
The reunion coincides with the Mississippi Methodist Conference's annual meeting in Jackson. It also occurs a week before the opening of the Philadelphia, Miss., murder trial of a reputed Ku Klux Klansman accused of the 1964 murders of Ben Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, civil rights volunteers who helped blacks register to vote.
Eight of the 28 ministers are deceased. At least 13 will be in Jackson on Monday.
Jim Nicholson, who organized the ministers' reunion, remembers a struggle of conscience.
The United Methodist Church, like most white denominations in the South, had not spoken out against the beatings, lynchings and mistreatment of blacks. Yet, the official United Methodist Church position in 1960 opposed discrimination based on race, color or creed.
As minister of a small church in Byram, just outside Jackson, Nicholson tried to change the attitude of his white congregation through his sermons.
"I delivered a sermon there called a trail through the wilderness. I laid it on them pretty heavy," he said. "They boycotted me from then on and refused to pay me any more, but they let me stay in the parsonage."
After the "Born of Conviction" statement, the congregation voted him out.
Nicholson, now 82, grew up in Mississippi and eventually left the state for Iowa.
Gerald Trigg, Maxie Dunnam, Jim Waits and Jerry Furr were the original authors of the document. They secretly met at Hidden Haven, Dunnam's river camp near Richton, a small south Mississippi town.
They worked overnight on the document, carefully choosing words that conveyed their conviction without being incendiary.
The plan was to give the statement to the newspapers and the United Methodist Church simultaneously. The ministers feared the church would pressure them to abandon their mission, Waits said.
The statement was published in the Mississippi Methodist Advocate on Jan. 2, 1963, and columnists in state newspapers wrote scathing editorials condemning the ministers' actions.
"This was perceived as liberal troublemakers rocking the boat. It's not the letter from the Birmingham jail or anything like that. The main thing it did was remind the Methodist Church of their social creed," said Joseph Reiff, a religion professor at Emory and Henry College in Virginia, who is writing a book about the 28 ministers.
The statement was released months after rioting erupted on the Oxford campus of the University of Mississippi when James Meredith became the first black student there. Just a few months after the statement was published, Mississippi NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers was assassinated in Jackson by white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith in June 1963.
Violence directed toward the ministers was less severe. Some had their tires slashed or received telephoned threats.
"What was more difficult for many of these folks was the lack of support that they got from conference leaders and the shunning they got from their church members," Reiff said.
Dunnam said the ministers hoped to do more than integrate churches. In Gulfport, where he preached, blacks lived along unpaved, dirt roadways with no street lights. They were intimidated by law officers who forbade them to openly meet with whites.
Dunnam recalled a midnight phone call he received from the Rev. Henry Clay, a black Gulf Coast minister. Dunnam had visited Clay's Sunday service. That night, the police invaded Clay's home and demanded to know the name of every white person who was at the church service.
"Henry wouldn't give him my name without my permission," Dunnam said.
Dunnam, 70, who recently became chancellor of Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky., said he left Mississippi after the statement was published because "there was absolutely no support from the leaders of the church."
He said that while race remains a national issue, "at least the governmental and civil laws have been changed. That's the difference."
I know a lot of Jackson's prominant liberals from that period.
They are a mixed bag.
I tried searching for their "Born of Conviction" statement, but I can't find it.
Roger that, they still need those votes for the democratic plantation masters. The liberal perpetual and infinite victimology lives on. NSNR
Cyborg, that is a good one and you made me laugh. Thanks, NSNR
I looked too and couldn't find it.
Maybe a good lawyer could find it
Does anybody know a "good" one?
cyborg IS pretty funny ...........for a girl. :>)
:o)
If not a good lawyer, a good Methodist.
If not a good lawyer, a good Methodist.
Both are pretty hard to find JK
Point taken.
Yes I know. It's so tragic :(
cyborg is pretty...... for a funny girl.
that's better!
LOL you are the perfect southern gent.
IMO, kcvl is the best researcher on the whole of FR. I still can't find the "Born of Conviction" statement. I am pinging her to see if she can.
"I really don't think there will ever be a problem
with blacks in white churches..........
because we would bore them to death if they did come!!!"
LOL! That is SO true!
The Blacks and the Pentecostals had the
very best services.
They were energized!
I meant to include you in my post above. ;o)
"Wow that's amazing a church that would turn away black people?? I don't see how people could say this country hasn't made any progress."
Unfortunately, it is true.
Things needed to change.
And, things are much different now.
I am sure there are places where Blacks are still treated badly.
But, not all of those places are in Missippy, or the South.
The South has adapted better than most places.
I am proud of it, because of that.
Yep! Yellow dawg democrats. ;o)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.