Southern White Fundamentalists and The Civil Rights Movement
Southern White Fundamentalists and The Civil Rights Movement
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8 "Christian Race Relations Must Be Natural, Not Forced," Southern Presbyterian Journal,
XIV (August 17, 1955), 4. In 1959 Southern Presbyterian Journal shortened its title to Presby-
terian Journal.
8 "Some Needed Distinctions," Southern Presbyterian Journal, XVI (June 5, 1957), 3.
4 Ibid.
5 Eternity, VII (October, 1957), 16.
6 Southern Presbyterian Journal, XIII (August 17, 1954), 4.
the action, declaring "We believe that the Trustees of Montreat have
been eminently Christian in their viewpoint and action."7
During the 1950s and 1960s the Journal criticized the National Council
of Churches and the Southern Presbyterian Church for their support of
desegregation of the church and the larger society. The Journal published
resolutions adopted by individual Presbyterian churches declaring their
intentions of remaining segregated despite General Assembly policy.
Beginning in 1957 the Journal carried segregationist articles which were
less temperate than Bell's statements. In one such essay Mississippi
clergyman G. T. Gillespie wrote that "to many of us this sweeping de-
cision of the higest court in virtually taking over the control and regu-
lation of the schools of the nation seems to be a clear violation of the
Constitution itself.... "8 Gillespie's writings, which have been much
publicized by both the apologists and opponents of segregation, also
charged that the Supreme Court had rendered its verdict on improper
evidence prepared by Communist and socialist sympathizers. Gillespie
urged Americans to launch a massive drive for reversal of the decision.
Another article in the Journal similarly appealed to a conspiratorial view
of the rights movement, asking "If the NAACP is not Communist why do
Communists publicly approve every NAACP action?"9
As the civil rights movement grew more militant during the 1960s, the
focus of white resistance shifted from rationalizations for maintaining
segregation to criticism of civil disobedience. An article in the Journal
acknowledged the theoretical validity of civil disobedience if civil law
were in conflict with God's law. However, the article concluded that
"In our present situation and under our present laws and even in spite
of the fact that they may at times be unjustly administered, it does not
seem likely that any case of civil disobedience is justified."10
The Journal's condemnation of civil disobedience was inconsistent
with its earlier resistance to compliance with desegregation orde
Bible study lesson in the Journal attempted to resolve the conflict with
the familiar assertion that the Supreme Court had exceeded its powers
in rendering the 1954 verdict because the decision was actually a form
of legislation and because public schooling is a state and not a federal
responsibility. The lesson advised readers that "Many Christians, there-
fore, in resisting the Decision, do so on the basis of sound principles."1'
Unlike the Southern Presbyterian Church, the Church of God and the
Assemblies of God did not directly confront racial issues until the 1960s.
When the editor of the Church of God's monthly journal, the Church
' Ernest S. Williams, '"Your Questions Answered," The Pentecostal Evangel, no. 2837 (Septem-
ber 22, 1968), 9; "Answers from the Word," Church of God Evangel, LVII (March 27, 1967), 15.
Arthur H. Townsend, "Obedient Under Authority," Church of God Evangel, LV (June 28,
1965), 7; The Pentecostal Evangel, no. 2834 (September 1, 1968), 8.
16 C. M. Ward, "Signs of the End of Time," The Pentecostal Evangel, no 2788 (October 15, 1967),
6; Robert C. Cunningham, editorial, ibid., no. 1779 (August 13, 1967), 4; "Iniquity Abounding,"
ibid., no. 2827 (July 14, 1968), 5.
17 "To the Inner City," Church of God Evangel, LVIII (February 24, 1969), 13.
I L. Calvin Bacon, "Eyewitness at a Funeral," The Pentecostal Evangel, no. 2827 (July 14,
1968), 20-21.
The Church of God and the Assemblies of God are both affiliated with
the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). Unlike the NCC, the
NAE did not adopt a resolution in the area of race relations until 1956.
Even at this late date, the NAE was careful to avoid direct reference to
segregation, speaking instead of the Christian responsibility to work
against racial discrimination. In 1964, after heated discussion, the NAE
annual meeting endorsed a resolution urging desegregation of churches
and church facilities. Although a few NAE members, like the Church
of God, responded with a human rights statement, no Southern NAE
affiliate spoke out strongly for desegregation. Typically, Southern NAE
churches were less disturbed by racial issues than were Southern mem-
bers of the National Council of Churches.
While external factors help to explain differences in the salience of
racial issues from one Southern white church to another, they do
not explain why fundamentalists church members were antagoni
the civil rights movement. In Southern Presbyterian Journal, Chur
God Evangel, and The Pentecostal Evangel, no one spoke out firmly for
desegregation, but it cannot be said that fundamentalism itself neces-
sarily encourages segregation. In 1955 the Northern Mennonite Church,
a fundamentalist NAE sect centered in Ohio and Indiana, ordered an
end to segregation within its congregation as well as in Church em-
ployment practices. A few white fundamentalists outside the South
supported passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, but similar voices were
not heard among Southern fundamentalists. Whether Northern or
Southern, black or white, fundamentalists were not found among the
militant proponents of racial equality. In American society funda-
mentalism does appear in coincidence with social and political con-
servatism. In the South conservatism has been associated with a sepa-
rate and secondary status for black Americans while segregation was
not so firmly entrenched in the North.
On the issue of civil disobedience there were no regional differences
among fundamentalists. Fundamentalists within and without the South
believed civil disobedience contrary to God's will. While black funda-
mentalists were consistently more supportive of civil rights goals than
white fundamentalists, blacks as well as whites found fundamentalist
theology a barrier against civil rights activism. Fundamentalists believe
that personal salvation is the only means to the elimination of social
problems and therefore place their energies in evangelism. Whether or
not fundamentalists endorse governmental measures to mitigate social
and economic discrimination, their position is qualified by the conviction
that those who seek permanent solutions to social problems through
legislation or litigation must ultimately fail.