Presbyterian Historical Society of the Southwest
James S. Currie, Executive Secretary
In 2014 the Presbyterian Historical Society of the Southwest published a volume under the title Doing Justice, Loving Kindness, and Walking Humbly: The Witness of Some Southern Presbyterian Pastors for the Cause of Racial Harmony in the 1950s and 1960s. That volume was re-issued in 2020. In it are sermons in 1957 by two Arkansas pastors, Marion Boggs of Second Presbyterian Church in Little Rock, and Don Campbell of Crossett, when the issue of racial integration at Central High School was about to capture the nation’s attention. In 2013 Campbell, who moved to Little Rock in 1961 to organize Grace Presbyterian Church, delivered a paper at the Society’s annual meeting in which he reflected on the church’s involvement in that crisis.
Many may recall or are at least aware of some of the central characters in the events that unfolded in Little Rock – the nine African-American students known as “the Little Rock Nine” who sought to enroll in the previously all-white Central High School (Elizabeth Eckford, Melba Patillo, Ernest Green, Gloria Ray, Carlotta Walls, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, Minnijean Brown, and Thelma Mothershed); Daisy Bates, the head of the NAACP in Arkansas who mentored the students and their parents throughout the ordeal, and Orville Faubus, governor of Arkansas. There were, of course, other important characters, but these were the focus of most people’s attention.
In addition to Boggs and Campbell, however, other Presbyterian ministers who publicly supported the integration efforts of Little Rock’s prestigious Central High School (and were clearly in the minority among Arkansas clergy in doing so) were Dunbar Ogden, pastor of Central Presbyterian Church in Little Rock, T. B. Hay, pastor of the Pulaski Heights Presbyterian Church in Little Rock, and George Chauncey, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Monticello (1954-58). Ogden chaired the local Ministerial Alliance and, as such, was asked to accompany the students to Central High School on their first day. He continued to meet with them at Daisy Bates’ home on a weekly basis. For his support in these efforts he was fired from his pastorate in 1958. His son, Dunbar Ogden, Jr. later wrote about his father’s experience in My Father Said Yes: A White Pastor in Little Rock School Integration (2008).
In her book Turn Away Thy Son: Little Rock, The Crisis that Shocked the Nation (2007) Elizabeth Jacoway covered in great detail the larger political and legal context in which the crisis took place. What many may have forgotten and perhaps did not know is that after the 1957-58 school year during which those nine students were heckled and tormented, all four Little Rock high schools were completely shut down the following school year. Finally, through the efforts of Gaston Williamson, a Presbyterian and a native of Monticello, Arkansas where his father was the clerk of session of the Presbyterian church, the high schools were re-opened and new steps were taken toward full integration. Williamson was an attorney who earned two law degrees in three years from Oxford University. After serving in World War II and then practicing law on Wall Street, he returned to Arkansas, settled in Little Rock where he joined the Rose Law Firm. Williamson became a member of Second Presbyterian Church. He died June 6, 2002. (Incidentally, his brother, Lamar Williamson, an ordained Presbyterian minister, served as professor of Biblical Studies at the Presbyterian School of Christian Education and later at Union Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. He died in June 2020.)
After a year of high schools being closed, in 1959 a new organization was formed with the name “the Committee for the Peaceful Operation of Free Public Schools.” Gaston Williamson was chosen as its chair. Under his leadership the schools were opened peacefully in the fall of 1959 and racial integration became a gradual reality.
So, why should we care about what happened over 65 years ago? Why study history? At least for two reasons:
to give thanks to God for the faith, commitment, and courage of those who stood up against racial discrimination and for what was right and in some circumstances suffered for it; and
to search our own hearts and minds as we seek to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ in a world that is fraught with all manner of divisiveness, fear, and violence.
We give thanks for the courage of those nine teenagers who volunteered to confront racism in turbulent times, and we give thanks for those leaders who supported them and labored for reconciliation in turbulent and unsettled times.
The Presbyterian Historical Society of the Southwest exists to “stimulate and encourage interest in the collection, preservation, and presentation of the Presbyterian and Reformed heritage” in the Southwest. If you are not a participating member of the Society and would like to become one, the annual dues are $20 per individual and $25 per couple. Annual institutional and church membership dues are $100. Checks may be made out to PHSSW and sent to: PHSSW – 5525 Traviston Ct., Austin, TX 78738.
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