"First Duty"

At Copenhagen, the Baptist World Alliance had wound up its meeting (the first since 1939) on a lofty note. The 5,000 delegates from 49 countries adopted a ringing manifesto: "It is our first duty to extend the rights of conscience to all people, irrespective of their race, color, sex or religion."

But Negro delegates to the congress were not impressed: some of their white U.S. colleagues had grumbled about staying in the same hotels with them. So said Dr. Marshall L. Shepard, of Philadelphia, chairman of the National Baptist Convention U.S.A.'s Foreign Mission Board. Dr. Shepard threatened, unless an apology was forthcoming, to call upon 4,000,000 U.S. Negro Baptists to quit the Alliance.

Last week, after the convention was over, Dr. Shepard got his apology. Tennessee-born Dr. C. Oscar Johnson, 60, newly elected president of the Alliance, formally made amends for his white colleagues, said it was all a "misunderstanding."

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