Beauty for Ashes

Heavy rain had fallen during the night, but Sunday dawned crisp and clear for the dedication of the new brick Christian Union Baptist Church on the outskirts of Jackson, Miss. Nearly 400 people were on hand for the ceremony, which was a landmark in the religious history of the South. Christian Union, a Negro church set afire by white extremists last July, was rebuilt with the help of an interracial group of Mississippians who call themselves the Committee of Concern.

Chairman is Dr. William P. Davis, white president of the state's Baptist seminary for Negroes. Visiting Christian Union, he thought, "This is the smoke of the burning Bibles, the sacrifice and prayers of poor people struggling for justice." As he stared at the charred remains, he repeated the words of Isaiah: "He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted ... to give unto them beauty for ashes."

Public Appeal. Several weeks later the Committee of Concern was organized by clergy of nine churches; among the founders were Roman Catholic Bishop Richard Gerow of Natchez-Jackson and Rabbi Perry Nussbaum of Jackson's Temple Beth Israel. The committee issued an appeal for whites and Negroes to join in rebuilding the 42 Negro churches bombed and burned in Mississippi. By year's end the committee had collected $50,000, much of it from within the state. Help came in other ways too. A group of students, mostly from Ohio's Oberlin College, arrived to help rebuild the Antioch Baptist Church near Ripley. Other students from as far away as Pennsylvania and California showed up in other towns to work with local volunteers, both white and Negro. Some local contractors donated materials. By last week, six Negro churches had been completely rebuilt.

But is the work of the committee enough? Some church leaders outside the state note that few white ministers have dared to preach on integration. Thus church-building may be a face-saving operation that permits the clerics to avoid confronting the root issue.

End to Violence. In answer, committee leaders argue that the churches must move with slow and special care if they are to influence their flocks at all. Perhaps, they can add, the committee's acts of good will have already begun to change the climate in the state. A fortnight ago, the president of the Mississippi Bankers Association, a Methodist, called on citizens "to obey the law, keep in step with the times." Last fall the Mississippi Baptist Convention appealed for an end to "injustices heaped upon Negroes."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.