Martin Luther King is a well-known preacher and civil rights leader but how many people know about his spiritual mentor, Howard Thurman. The world knows about Rosa Parks but how many of us know about Pauli Murray who refused to sit at the back of the bus years before Rosa Parks took her stand. How many of us know about Charles M Sheldon who popularized the phrase What Would Jesus Do almost 100 years before it's more recent usage by evangelicals.
On this page, we'll explore the lives and work of many southerners who were willing to take action in response to societal issues in light of the words of Jesus.. We'll also look at those outside the region whose writings and actions influenced southern protestants to take up the cause
Social action by southern protestants was very limited in the early years of America. Few protestants openly took stands on the abolishment of slavery, women's rights, poverty, prison reform, universal education adequate medical care and other social issues. These issues were seldomly discussed and rarely preached or practiced. Those who did advocate for social justice were often criticized, ostracized, and condemned.
However, there were always a few individuals willing to take public stands, willing to take more radical actions, and willing to take greater risks in acting on their beliefs about what Jesus would do in response to real needs of real people of their time. As history progressed, increasing numbers of southern protestants took positive action to live out the message of Jesus.
Who were these people? How did their readings of the words of Jesus spur them to action?
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 | William Louis Poteat (1856-1938), was a professor (c. 1880-1905) and then the seventh president (1905-1927) of Wake Forest College. He was the son of a slaveholder and grew up on a large tobacco plantation in Caswell County, North Carolina.. A devout Christian, Poteat was noted for his progressive views on race. He was a rarity in the South for openly teaching evolution beginning in the 1880s.. Historians have identified Poteat as a foremost southern exemplar of social Christianity Involved in many social movements and organizations, Poteat was a member of the North Carolina Conference for Social Service (president), Southern Baptist Education Association (president three terms), North Carolina Anti-Saloon League (president), North Carolina Reconstruction Commission, and many other organizations. |
 | Charles Monroe Sheldon (February 26, 1857 in Wellsville, New York – February 24, 1946) was an American minister in the Congregational churches and leader of the Social Gospel movement. In the winter of 1896 Sheldon developed a sermon story that he read as a weekly series from the pulpit. The unifying theme of these sermons was based on the question, "What Would Jesus Do?" . He viewed this question as traditional within Christianity. He used this sermon series as the basis for his novel, In His Steps, which was published in 1896. This book (and other writings by Sheldon) influenced countless readers including many southern protestants to apply the words and actions of Jesus to present day conditions. Charles M Sheldon and Walter Rauschenbusch are considered to be the fathers of the Social Gospel movement in America. |
 | Mary Jane McLeod Bethune (July 10, 1875 – May 18, 1955) was an American educator and civil rights leader best known for starting a school for African-American students in Daytona Beach, Florida, that eventually became Bethune-Cookman University and for being an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Born in South Carolina to parents who had been slaves and having to work in fields at age five, she took an early interest in her own education. With the help of benefactors, Bethune attended college hoping to become a missionary in Africa. When that did not materialize, she started a school for black girls in Daytona Beach. From six students it grew and merged with an institute for black boys and eventually became the Bethune-Cookman School. Its quality far surpassed the standards of education for black students, and rivaled those of white schools. She was president of the college from 1923 to 1942 and 1946 to 1947, one of the few women in the world who served as a college president at that time. |
 | Howard Thurman (1899 – April 10, 1981) was an influential American author, philosopher, theologian, educator and civil rights leader. . Howard Thurman was born in 1899 in Daytona Beach, Florida and grew up in the segregated South. He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1925. He served as spiritual advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., He was Dean of Theology and the chapels at Howard University and Boston University for more than two decades, wrote 20 books, and in 1944 helped found the first racially integrated, multicultural church in the United States. The most famous of his works, Jesus and the Disinherited (1949), deeply influenced Martin Luther King, Jr. and other leaders, both black and white, of the modern Civil Rights Movement In 1953 Life Magazine rated Thurman among the twelve most important religious leaders in the United States |
 | The Reverend Dr. Anna Pauline (Pauli) Murray (November 20, 1910 – July 1, 1985) was an American civil rights advocate, feminist, lawyer, writer, poet, teacher, and ordained priest. When Pauli Murray was three years old, her mother died, and she went to live with her aunt and maternal grandparents in Durham, North Carolina. Pauli graduated from Hunter College, and in 1938 was denied admission into the University of North Carolina law school because of her race. She later entered Howard University Law School and graduated as valedictorian in 1944.She sought admission to Harvard University for an advanced law degree but was denied admission because she was a woman A contemporary and friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, she was a professor of American studies at Brandeis University from 1968 to 1973. Murray the first African-American woman to become an Episcopal priest. |
 | Clarence Jordan (July 29, 1912 – October 29, 1969), a white Southern Baptist minister, cofounded Koinonia Farm inSumter County and translated many New Testament books into the "Cotton Patch"versions, colloquial interpretations set in the American South. Jordan committed his ministry to racial reconciliation and economic justice. A gifted preacher and teacher, he was a popular and frequent speaker at progressive religious gatherings across the United States from the 1940s through the 1960s.. He was also instrumental in the founding of Habitat for Humanity. |
 | Will Davis Campbell (born 1924 in Amite County, Mississippi, United States) is a Baptist minister, activist, author, and lecturer. Throughout his life, he has been a notable white supporter of civil rights in the Southern United States. Campbell, the son of a farmer, was ordained as a minister by his local Baptist congregation at age 17. In 1954, he took a position as director of religious life at the University of Mississippi, only to resign it in 1956, in part because of the hostility (including death threats) he received as a supporter of integration. In 1957, he was the only white person present at the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. While Campbell is best known in connection with civil rights activism, he also has taken an interest in other political issues. He participated in protests against the Vietnam War[and helped draft resisters find sanctuary in Canada. |
 | Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African American civil rights movement.He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found theSouthern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discriminationthrough civil disobedience and other nonviolent means. |
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(NOTE: We'll be adding more people on a continuous basis ....so check back often)
