Word: baptiste
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Compared with the ringing statements on racial equality of other U.S. churches, the few pronouncements of the 11 million-member Southern Baptist Convention have been notable only for their ineffective neutrality. At the Baptists' annual meeting in Houston last week, however, nearly three-fourths of the 7,000 messengers (delegates) approved a strong declaration that called upon the convention to open all churches to black membership and work for better housing, employment and education for Negroes. It also acknowledged the denomination's "share of responsibility" for the nation's racial crisis...
...light of the spirit of the declaration, there was some surprise that the messengers elected a conservative as incoming president. He is Dr. W. A. Criswell, 60, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, the largest Southern Baptist congregation. Although long regarded as a segregationist by other Baptist leaders, Criswell insisted that his 15,000-member congregation includes three Negroes. There is no disputing, however, the conservatism of his theology. Criswell is strongly opposed to the teaching of evolution in public schools, believes that Genesis provides a literally accurate account of the world's beginning...
...Abernathys took their two daughters and a son to Atlanta, where Ralph became pastor of the West Hunter Street Baptist Church and secretary-treasurer of King's S.C.L.C. While King, with his soaring eloquence and philosophical moorings emerged as the country's leading civil rights figure, Abernathy became the whip of the movement, and his humor and gift for mediation were invaluable. "When we were in jail," recalls Wyatt Tee Walker, once executive director of the S.C.L.C. and now aide to Nelson Rockefeller, "he would organize things, like appointing a cleanup detail. Martin would never go to jail...
...State College, graduating in 1950 with honors in sociology. He stayed on to teach history and counsel students, and took up preaching for $40 a Sunday at a tiny church in Demopolis. His gutbucket style gained him quick recognition, and in 1951 he was named pastor of the First Baptist Church of Montgomery, where he also joined the N.A.A.C.P. He approached civil rights with the same intensity as he did the Bible. So it was not surprising that he got the first call for help after Mrs. Rosa Parks, a Negro seamstress, refused to give up her seat...
Filling the gap left by King is no easy task. King was not only a superb orator, but he also had credentials-such as the Nobel Prize-that impressed the white power structure. Though Abernathy's assets are far less gilt-edged and his speaking style retains brimstone Baptist elements, he grows more sophisticated as he emerges from the comparative obscurity in which he lived under King. Says Mrs. Abernathy: "I guess you could have called him the man in the shadow...