This Week in Texas Methodist History April 5

Edmund Heinsohn Defends Religious Climate at University of Texas,  April, 1943

One of the most intellectually gifted Texas Methodist preachers was Edmund Heinsohn (1888-1989).  His Fifty Years Courtroom Pulpit (1972) reveals a deep intellect, passionate involvement in social issues, and a consecrated life devoted to the gospel.  He was born in Fayette County but his family moved to Bartlett when he was a child.  He received both undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Texas and moved to Temple to set up a law practice.  He practiced law for eleven years and then entered the Methodist ministry.  He served several appointments, including six years at First MECS at Georgetown before being appointed to University in Austin in 1934. 

On any given Sunday morning his congregation included many university professors, Supreme Court justices, elected officials –the cream of Texas intellectual elite.  He served on the Southwestern University board from 1931-1959 and chaired the board of Huston-Tillotson College.  He was also chair of the Texas State Library and Historical Commission for 25 years.  He was simultaneously a Lion, a Rotarian, and a Kiawanian. 

In 1943 he came to the defense of the embattled President of the University of Texas, Homer Raney in the battle over academic freedom.  Raney (1896-1985) had run afoul of trustees who wanted to control all aspects of the university.  Raney had been named President in 1939 when the Board of Regents was composed in large part of Regents appointed by Governor James Allred.   Allred was a progressive and an  enthusiastic FDR New Deal supporter.  The next governor was W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel, perhaps the most anti-intellectual governor Texas has ever had.  Texas has had lots of unintellectual governors, but O’Daniel was actually anti-intellectual.  When O’Daniel left for the Senate, Coke Stevenson became governor.  Robert Caro in his biography of Lyndon Johnson describes Stevenson as self-educated rather than academically inclined.  O’Daniel and Stevenson appointed UT Regents who shared their political views, and a cornerstone of both O’Daniel and Stevenson was their hatred of labor unions.

Regents pressured Raney to fire four economics professors who professed New Deal view and even defended parts of New Deal labor legislation.  Raney defended the professors.  The Regents fired them anyway.  Three of them had tenure.  Regents also found that an English instructor had placed USA by John Dos Passos on the reading list for sophomore students.   They called for the work’s removal.

Raney was outraged by the meddling of the Regents some of whom began openly undercutting Raney.  One of the smears against Raney, who was an ordained Baptist preacher, was that he was promoting atheism, perversion, communism, and socialism---sound familiar?

Heinsohn published an open letter in April 1943 after securing the cooperation of Presbyterians, Lutherans, Episcopals, Baptists, the YMCA, and YWCA, all of whom added their signatures to the open letter.  Other Methodist signers with C. W. Hall, and Paul Deats, Jr.   Hall held the Bible Chair at UT and Deats was with the Wesley Foundation then.  (Deats eventually joined the faculty of Boston University and became a leading light in Methodist progressive circles for years.)

The open letter was a defense of the University of Texas in promoting religious life among its students.  The letter contained 9 points:

1. Only 451 members of the 10,000 person student body failed to list a religious preference when they registered.
2. 90% of the faculty were church members
3. The University gave academic credit for the Bible classes taught at the church student centers.
4. A committee regularly brought religious figures to campus to address various student audiences
5. The Hogg Foundation at the UT regularly promoted the cause of religion in mental hygiene.
6. The University allows religious groups to use campus facilities without a fee
7. The Fine Arts Department regularly performs sacred music and religious drama
8. The Daily Texan regularly prints announcements of meeting of religious groups
9. The Library purchases books at the request of the various denominations and makes them available to students.

Just to make sure they got the point Heinsohn added, “We also wish to express our appreciation to Dr. H. P. Raney, President of the University of Texas, for his fine religious leadership and counsel shown by his many speeches and discussions of religious topics to church groups in Austin and around the state, and his active participation in the life of a University Church.”

Raney was fired without cause in 1946.  His firing led to a student strike, an 8000 person march from the campus to the Capitol and Governor’s Mansion, sanctions by the AAUP, and reprimands from Phi Beta Kappa and the Southern Association.  

Raney ran for governor in 1946 in a very contested primary---the big issues were academic freedom, racial justice, and of course—labor unions.  He survived the first primary but lost to Beuford Jester in the runoff.  The next year he accepted the presidency of Stephens College.  Raney eventually retired from the University of Colorado.