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Southern Baptists and Racial Stigma after the 1954 Brown Decision
In an important study of southern Protestant denominations, David Chappell describes the dissension among white Christians in the 1950s and 1960s as racial concerns grew. He notes that southern Protestant religious bodies quickly desegregated their seminaries after the Brown decision, and the SBC did so in 1958.32 Since southern Protestant church members probably were as racist as the rest of the white South, what was significant, he argues, was that they generally did not join the anti-civil rights movement and unite with white southern politicians in defense of segregation.33 Chappell’s insight is important because it illustrates the willingness of southern Christians to abide by the law. However, they continued to deny church membership to African Americans.
The 1960s was an era of great racial upheaval because of the civil rights movement under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., other ministers, and activists. The SBC’s 1961 resolution committed them “as Christians to do all that we can to improve the relations among all races as a positive demonstration of the power of Christian love.”34 Yet, it decried both mob violence and those who were involved in provocations – comments aimed at civil rights advocates. There was no mention of the problems with segregation that lay at the center of the civil rights movement, but it did mention the toll of racial prejudice on race relations. The resolution referred to the civil rights movement as a “racial revolution” at its doorstep that would not end and was accelerating the current racial crisis that had in its midst “frustrating confusion and blurred issues.”35