First African-American graduate of Southwestern Seminary still preaching at 100_41904

Posted: 4/08/04

First African-American graduate of
Southwestern Seminary still preaching at 100

By George Henson

Staff Writer

FORT WORTH—One hundred-year-old Eugene Florence has seen plenty of change in his lifetime, but the gospel of Jesus Christ and his heartfelt desire to preach it have not wavered at all.

Florence still preaches, drives his car and works in his garden in the Stop Six neighborhood of inner-city Fort Worth. Maybe the secret of his relative vigor lies in the fact he was born Feb. 29, 1904, so he has had only 25 birthdays.

While Florence's ministerial career has been a long one, it took awhile to get started. He was ordained at age 32 at New Home Baptist Church, a country church in East Texas.

"I wish I would have answered the call sooner—I believe I was called when I was 18 years old. But I didn't, and I got into some things that were wrong and had to spend a few days before I came to myself," he said.

Eventually, finances forced Florence from rural East Texas to Fort Worth.

"Everything was so poor in East Texas, even the land, so I couldn't make a living out there, so I came out here," he recalled.

In 1943, he began taking classes at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, but because African-Americans were not allowed to attend classes during the day, he started a long stretch of night school.

Florence recalled the advice he received: "They're giving some night classes out there (at the seminary). You won't get everything, but what you get will help you."

"So I went out there two nights a week for eight years and never missed a class," he said.

Roy Cotton, a consultant with the Church Multiplication Center of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, said: "The man is a walking, talking living legend. He went to Southwestern before 'coloreds' could attend. But the Lord had called him to preach, and he wanted a seminary education.

"He was the first of two African-Americans to graduate from Southwestern with a diploma in theology in 1951. I saw pictures of him receiving the diploma as the Fort Worth newspaper article read in 1951 regarding the two colored graduates: 'They received diplomas same as the ones the white students received.'"

During that time, Florence was preaching at Mount Ebo Baptist Church near Granbury. He spent the bulk of his ministry as pastor of Saint John's Baptist Church in Decatur, where he was pastor 29 years. All the while, he commuted from his home in Fort Worth.

The education he received in seminary allowed him to be a more effective pastor, Florence said.

"I gained the knowledge of how a build a sermon each week—how to make an outline and then preach from it,"he said.

While he still enjoys preaching, many Sundays now find him in a pew at New Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Fort Worth.

"If I would just go and let people know I wanted to, I could preach every Sunday somewhere. But I don't want anybody to think I'm in it for the money, so I sometimes just go and listen to someone else preach," he said.

He does feel, however, that his preaching skills have stayed sharp.

"I stay with my thought or subject now, but when I first started I got off and went off through the woods and everywhere else. Now I stay with my subject and always end up with Christ. You end up with Christ, and no one can be disappointed," Florence said.