John and Vera Mae Perkins: Let Justice Roll Down

His brother died in his arms, shot by a deputy marshal. He was beaten and tortured by the sheriff and state police. But through it all he returned good for evil, love for hate, progress for prejudice and brought hope to black and white alike. The story of John Perkins is no ordinary story. Rather, it is a gripping portrayal of what happens when faith thrusts a person into the midst of a struggle against racism, oppression and injustice. It is about the costs of discipleship--the jailings, the floggings, the despair, the sacrifice. And it is about the transforming work of faith that allowed John to respond to such overwhelming indignities with miraculous compassion, vision and hope.

Born June 16, 1930, John Perkins grew up on a plantation in Mississippi as a sharecropper in the 1940s. . Fleeing to California at age 17 after his older brother’s murder at the hands of a town marshal, he vowed never to return.
Vera Mae Perkins grew up in New Hebron, Mississippi and accepted Christ at age 11. She graduated from high school and then went on to Alcorn State University where she received a beautician’s license. In 1951, she married John Perkins.
After converting to Christianity in 1960, John and Vera Mae returned to Mendenhall, Mississippi to share the gospel of Christ. While in Mississippi, his outspoken nature and support and leadership in civil rights demonstrations resulted in repeated harassment, beatings and imprisonment. 

During the tumultuous sixties and seventies, Perkins tried to reach out to the white community to encourage it to embrace justice for all. Though he found a few concerned and willing, he found the majority hostile. His efforts earned him a severe beating by the sheriff and highway patrol and a sentence to prison. As he fought the unjust legal system, he experienced bitterness, injustice, and God's hand of love opening to him in a new way.
In Mendenhall, Perkins and his wife, Vera Mae, founded Voice of Calvary Ministries. This Christian community development ministry started a church, health center, leadership development program, thrift store, low-income housing development, and training center

His best known book his autobiography, Let Justice Roll Down was published in 1976.  
"A refreshing break from the usual religious hype, this book will show skeptics an authentic, practical, and compelling Christianity they may have never seen before. And it will challenge Christian readers to apply, in utterly down-to-earth ways, the implications of their faith." 



“The most terrible thing about the situation in the South,” he wrote in Let Justice Roll Down, “was that so many of the folks who were either violently racist or who participated in discrimination … called themselves Christians. The question on my mind … was whether or not Christianity was a stronger force than racism.”   Ultimately, the radical message of Let Justice Roll Down is that the love of Christ is a force stronger than racism.

Perkins other  books include the memiors "Love is the Final Fight", "Follow Me to Freedom," "Welcoming Justice," "With Justice for All", "A Quiet Revolution" and "Linking Arms, Linking Lives".

In 1982, the Perkins family returned to California and lived in the city of Pasadena where Perkins and his wife founded Harambee Christian Family Center in Northwest Pasadena, a neighborhood that had one of the highest daytime crime rates in California. Harambee is yet standing, running numerous programs including after school tutoring, Good News Bible Clubs, an award-winning technology center, summer day camp, youth internship programs, and a college scholarship program.

In 1983, while yet in California, Perkins and his wife, along with a few friends and other major supporters, established the John M. Perkins Foundation for Reconciliation & Development, Inc for the sole purpose of supporting their mission of advancing the principles of Christian community development and racial reconciliation throughout the world.

In 1992 he began publishing Urban Family intended as a voice of hope and progress, offering solutions that emphasize responsibility, affirm dignity, build moral character, and encourage reconciliation. The circulation quickly rose to 35,000 nationally. This name was changed to a more appropriate reconciliation title, the Reconicilers Fellowship. In January 1998, the death of his eldest son, Spencer, the editor-in-chief of this magazine led to the publication being discontinued.

After the death of his son in 1998, John and Vera Mae Perkins returned to Mississippi, and bought the property once owned by Spencer and his Antioch Community and established the Spencer Perkins Center, the youth arm of the John M. Perkins Foundation. It has developed youth programs such as After School Tutorial, Summer Arts Camp, Junior and College Internship Program, Good News Bible Club, Young Life and Jubilee Youth Garden. The foundation also has a housing arm, Zechariah 8, providing affordable housing for low-to moderate-income families with a focus on single mothers.

He again was arrested in 2005 year while protesting in Washington D.C. against U. S. Government defunding of programs aiding the poor.

In the video below, John Perkins discusses his upbringing and how his conversion to Christianity spurred his commitment to work for social justice and other causes.

Tommorrow we'll take an in-depth look at one specific ministry of John and Vera Mae Perkins.