BLACK HISTORY MONTH:
Separated at birth, united in faith
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___Lay the history of African-American Texas Baptists alongside the story of Anglo Baptists in the state, and it reads like a tale of twins separated at birth.
___Common beginnings, a shared commitment to missions and ministry, and a strikingly similar history of organizational multiplication by
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E.C. ESTELL, pastor of St. John Baptist Church in Dallas, accompanies Martin Luther King Jr. into a meeting of the National Baptist Convention US, Inc., at the newly opened Memorial Auditorium in Dallas.
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division characterize the history of each.
___Three years after the first missionary Baptist church in Texas was founded in 1837 at Washington-on-the-Brazos, First Baptist Church of Galveston organized the
"Colored Baptist Church" for five slaves who had been attending. That congregation--later known as Africa Baptist Church and ultimately Avenue L Baptist Church--was the first African-American Baptist church in the state.
___Prior to the Civil War, slaves often attended the same churches as their owners. In 1850, Ebenezer Baptist Church in LaGrange became the first church built by slaves for slaves.
___After the war, 18 former slaves who had been members of First Baptist Church in Waco became the charter members of New Hope Baptist Church--the first congregation of African-American freemen.
___The first Texas Baptist association, Union Baptist Association, was formed in 1840, and eight years later, Texas churches formed the Baptist State Convention. According to Leon McBeth's history, "Texas Baptists," the first offerings recorded by that convention were for missions--including an $11.50 gift from a black church for missions in Africa.
___African-American Baptists formed their first association of churches--St. John Regular Missionary Baptist Association--in 1867. Black Baptist churches formed their first convention, the Texas Baptist State Convention, in 1875.
___In 1886, the Baptist State Convention--which at this point had become virtually all Anglo--merged with the Baptist General Association to form the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___Seven years later, the African-American Texas Baptist State Convention divided into two groups, currently known as the Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention and the Missionary Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___And seven years after that, the BGCT experienced a schism of its own when S.A. Hayden and other Landmark Baptists broke away to form the Baptist Missionary Association.
___Breaking barriers
___For the next half-century, the BGCT and African-American Baptists had little official contact with each other. But two African-American pastors in Austin shattered the racial barrier in Texas Baptist life in 1954, the same year the Supreme Court declared "separate but equal" public education unconstitutional.
___Harold Branch at 19th Street Baptist Church and Robert Row at Ebenezer Baptist Church led their congregations to apply for membership in Austin Baptist Association,
and they became the first predominantly African-American churches to affiliate with the BGCT.
___Branch recalls his first contact with Texas Baptists was through a shared interest in the Baptist Student Union at the University of Texas. Once he established relationships with several pastors through the student ministry, Austin Association started inviting him and other black pastors to attend associational training events, and Branch also attended the BGCT Evangelism Conference.
___After a year of "watch care" status, Austin Association voted in 1955 to admit 19th Street Baptist and Ebenezer Baptist churches as full members.
___"There was a little conflict at the time of the voting," Branch recalled. But two Anglo pastors--Carlyle Marney at First Baptist Church of Austin and Blake Smith at University Baptist Church--interceded on behalf of the two black churches.
___Branch went on to serve on the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission and State Missions Commission, preached at the Texas Baptist Evangelism Conference in 1971, and was presented the Texas Baptist Elder Statesman award in 1993.
___Throughout most of his ministry--both in Austin and at St. John Baptist Church in Corpus Christi--he was actively involved both in Southern Baptist and National Baptist life. He served on the foreign mission boards of both the Southern Baptist Convention and the National Baptist Convention of America.
___Seminary integrated
___In the early 1950s, Marvin Griffin, then pastor at New Hope Baptist Church in Waco, and L.F. Hardee, another Waco pastor, enrolled as the first African-American students at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.
___Griffin grew up in Dallas at Greater Bethlehem Baptist Church. He remembers riding his bicycle to hear George W. Truett, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, preach when Truett and the pastor of Good Street Baptist Church occasionally exchanged places in the pulpit.
___And he recalled reading the Sunday School literature his mother's employer, a member of First Baptist, sent to him. Southern Baptists' emphasis on Sunday School helped draw Griffin--who already had a bachelor's degree from Bishop College in Marshall and a divinity degree from Oberlin Graduate School of Theology in Ohio--to Southwestern Seminary.
___"I chose Southwestern for its program in educational work. I felt I probably would be in churches where I would have to direct the religious education program myself, and I wanted that training," Griffin said. "I felt that Southern Baptists had much to offer to us. And I felt that we had much to offer to them."
___As one of the first African-American students on campus, Griffin recalled receiving a polite--if not overly warm--welcome. "I was never insulted, but I never pushed myself on anyone. I was always treated cordially, but I couldn't stay on the campus."
___He and Hardee asked seminary President J. Howard Williams to reconsider the "whites only" housing policy. "Dr. Williams said he would take it up with the proper authorities. But then he sent word to us, asking us to withdraw our request. He said it was against municipal laws," Griffin recalled.
___Griffin has served more than 30 years as historian for the National Baptist Convention of America, one of the three largest nationwide groups of historically black Baptist churches. And he has held various offices in the Missionary Baptist General Convention of Texas
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___He also has been deeply involved in the BGCT and, until recent years, the SBC. The BGCT elected Griffin as first vice president in 1996, and he has served on the BGCT Christian Life Commission. He has served extended terms on the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs in Washington, D.C.
___Griffin was the first African-American to speak in many Anglo churches when he worked as a representative for the SBC Home Mission Board, Dallas Baptist Association and a consortium of African-American churches in the area of urban ministries.
___Mutual understanding
___The BGCT and the historic black Baptist conventions in the state have taken steps in the last half-century toward mutual understanding and respect.
___"I've seen it go from nothing to something," said L.B. George, who served 27 years as pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church in Fort Worth--the first African-American church to join Tarrant Baptist Association.
___George served as the first African-American regent at Baylor University and Truett Seminary, and he currently serves on the board of Baylor Medical Center. He was named Texas Baptist Elder Statesman in 1998.
___"The change occurred when the BGCT intentionally decided, 'We want to be inclusive--to be fraternal rather than paternal in our relationships,'" said Jim Culp, who served 19 years helping the BGCT develop relations with black churches.
___The first step the BGCT took was creating a staff position for black church relations in the State Missions Commission. Vernon Hickerson served in that role for about two years, and then the position remained vacant for five years until Culp accepted the challenge in 1982.
___"When I came on board, I sent the president of every black convention in the state a letter," Culp said. "I confessed that we had not been brothers. The attitude of the BGCT had been one of paternalism, but I was determined that we would be fraternal. Then I went to meet them all."
___A major challenge was helping Anglo Baptists in the BGCT understand the value of existing Baptist churches in their own communities.
___"There was a perception that there was nothing happening in the black community unless there was a Southern Baptist church there," Culp said. "Anglos had to rea
lize the black churches were already doing what God had called them to do."
___The number of African-American churches affiliated with the BGCT roughly doubled during Culp's tenure. About 700 predominantly African-American churches are affiliated with the BGCT today.
___Goals for today
___Michael Evans, who served 10 years as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Mansfield, succeeded Culp last year as director of African-American ministries with the BGCT. He is quick to praise the contributions of his predecessor.
___"The fortitude of Jim Culp cannot be measured. He blessed the BGCT and prepared the way for bold initiatives in the next generation," Evans said.
___One initiative Evans said he wants to see fulfilled is an increased involvement by African-American Texas Baptists in missions, particularly global missions in Africa.
___In addition to growth in stewardship and increased opportunities for leadership training, Evans also said he wants to see greater involvement by African-Americans in all aspects of BGCT life.
___A higher profile for African-Americans on BGCT programs and greater involvement in decision-making is a dream shared by many longtime African-American Texas Baptists.
___"If the BGCT really were open, it would have tremendous growth among minorities," Griffin said.
___While BGCT Cooperative Program gifts from African-American churches increased about 20 percent last year, representation on boards should not be tied to the level of financial contributions from churches, Griffin said. "Often we are judged by how much we give. Oppressed people don't look at it that way."
___Another priority for Evans is to continue building on the relationships Culp established with non-BGCT African-American Baptists. His office currently relates to four nationwide and seven state black Baptist conventions.
___A rallying point for most African-American Baptists in Texas for much of the 20th century was Bishop College, a black institution that originated in Marshall and later moved to Dallas. But Bishop closed its doors in 1988.
___Even so, longtime Bishop College supporter Marvin Griffin believes there are other ministry and mission projects that could draw all Texas Baptists together.
___"Why can't the black Baptist conventions work with the BGCT on certain issues? If we did work together, we would be more powerful and effective in our witness," said Griffin, who helped organize a one-time gathering in Waco of leaders from all the black Texas Baptist conventions in the mid-1950s.
___C.A.W. Clark, pastor of Good Street Baptist Church in Dallas for 52 years and president of the Baptist Missionary and Education Convention of Texas, said that the divisions between Baptists in the state are not insurmountable.
___"I don't think there is a negative feeling about fellowshipping one with another. The problem is one of waiting for someone else to take the initial step," Clark said. "We can spend an eternity waiting for someone else to make the first step."
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