Southern Desegregation

The unedifying bitterness that keeps Christian whites from wanting to pray in church next to Christian Negroes does not end spontaneously. Instead, it usually gives way before glacierlike pressures from above--from bishops, synods and church conferences, followed by pastors and priests. This process, advanced in the North, is slowly reaching the pulpits and even the congregations of Southern Protestants.

Presbyterian Precept. Responding to the marching orders of this year's General Conference, white-only Methodist jurisdictions in the South have begun to explore merging with smaller Negro conferences. At its General Assembly in April, the Southern Presbyterian Church ordered the integration of its separate white and Negro presbyteries; since then many Southern Presbyterian synods have also approved an amendment to the church's constitution that states: "No one shall be excluded from participation in public worship on grounds of race, color or class." Last May the North Carolina synod of the Lutheran Church in America urged its 198 congregations to welcome all persons to worship regardless of race.

Reflecting these high-level policy shifts, the all-white Enoree presbytery in South Carolina voted to accept Negroes to services, and a Negro, the Rev. E. E. Newberry of Charlotte, N.C., was elected moderator of the predominantly white Mecklenberg presbytery. Negro clergy this year were for the first time admitted to membership in the Ministers' Association of Columbia, S.C. Last week a Negro, Dr. Harry Richardson of Atlanta, was elected president of the Georgia Council of Churches.

Baptist Backdown. The conservative Southern Baptist Convention voted down a strong civil rights resolution at its annual convention in May, but 981 of 3,901 Texas Baptist churches have quietly opened their doors to Negroes. The Rev. C. E. Autrey of Dallas, one of the most respected of Southern Baptist evangelists, preaches that "racism is immoral" and that Baptist foot dragging on civil rights is impeding its mission work. Atlanta's First Baptist Church, which made headlines when its ushers threw Negroes bodily from the steps last year, has long since voted to allow them to sit in the sanctuary with whites.

So far, the effect of the changing attitudes toward race remains on the level of tokenism and gingerly pronouncements, but there are a few signs that pronouncement may be the prologue to commitment and action. Last month the District of Columbia Baptist Convention, which is composed of both American and Southern Baptists, passed a resolution that urged charitable institutions affiliated with it to abandon racist admission policies; behind these soft words was the unmistakable threat to cut off financial support if the institutions did not comply. And in Mississippi, a Roman Catholic bishop has joined with Protestants to form a "Committee of Concern" under the leadership of Baptist Preacher William P. Davis of Jackson. The purpose is to raise money to rebuild Negro churches destroyed or damaged in the state by racist bomb throwers.

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