This Week in Texas Methodist History  April 25,

 

Uniting Conference Convenes in Kansas City, Texas Methodists on Program, April 25, 1939

 

The Methodist Church was created by the unification of the Methodist Episcopal Church, The Methodist Episcopal Church South, and the Methodist Protestant Church in 1939.  The formalities of uniting were held in Kansas City, Missouri, from April 25 to May14, 1939.  The unification of the three denominations that had been caused by 19^th century divisions had been discussed for decades and was to create a denomination that lasted until the creation of the United Methodist Church in 1968.  There was little doctrinal difference to be considered.  The main obstacle to unification was the Southern Church’s insistence on imposing Jim Crow segregation of the races on the new denomination.  That issue was settled in favor or the Southern church by moving the election of bishops from the General Conference to newly-created Jurisdictional Conferences.  Five of the jurisdictions would be geographic, one would be racial.  The creations of the so-called Central Jurisdiction meant that Methodists of European descent would never have an African American bishop.  Jim Crow won.

 

Three Texas Methodists played “headline” roles in the Uniting Conference.  In addition, a former pastor of Travis Park Methodist in San Antonio who had later been elected bishop also made the list of named speakers. 

 

The days were consumed with business sessions.  Committees met to hammer out provisions of the new denomination’s organization.  For example, should the new church use the Southern “Presiding Elder” or the Northern “District Superintendent” to describe the office of a minister in charge of one of the regional subdivisions of the annual conferences?  More substantive issues were also determined in committee and then by plenary sessions.  One of those was the location of church Boards and Agencies, and publishing houses since unification would reduce the total number required.  Several of those decisions were so difficult that delegates could not reach a compromise, and consolidation of services was postponed.

 

Days were filled with business sessions, but at 8:00 p..m. each night the delegates participated in worship, and each night had a theme.  Of the four “headliners” the first appeared on Friday night, April 28.  The theme was Foreign Missions the main speaker was Bishop Arthur Moore former pastor of Travis Park in San Antonio.  On Sunday, April 30, worship service was held and the preacher was John N. R. Score, pastor of First Methodist Fort Worth, later of St. Paul’s Houston, and then President of Southwestern University.  On Thursday May 4 the theme was Home Missions, and the preacher was Bishop A. Frank Smith of Houston.  When Moore was at Travis Park, Smith was at Laurel Heights San Antonio, and the two became best friends.  They were both elected bishop at an early age and became two of the most prominent MECS bishops as the unification rolled out, mainly through force of personality.  Both achieved even greater prominence in the new denomination, and coincidentally, I knew both of them. 

 

Wednesday May 10 was Education Night, and one of the speakers was Umphrey Lee, President of SMU.   Since SMU was MECS, Lee’s appearance had to be balanced with a MEC academic.  The one chosen was Lynn Hough, Dean of Drew University in Madison, New Jersey.  A similar shared platform had occurred on Laity Night with Governor Alf Landon (Kansas, MEC) and Governor Clyde Hoey (North Carolina, MECS).   

 

Although over one half of the membership of all three uniting congregations was female, only one woman was invited as the principal speaker at one of the 8:00 p.m. sessions.  That was Georgia Harkness.  The well-know educator, theologian, and philosopher was ending a stint at Mt. Holyoke, and was on her way to Garret Biblical Institute. 

 

The service of Union occurred on Friday, May 12 at 8:00 p.m  The Methodist Church came into being.

 

I mentioned earlier how the price of unification was the institutionalization of racial segregation.  The African American delegates to the Uniting Conference all voted against union on those terms.  They had to endure a final racist insult.  The “Negro Night” was held on Saturday May 13, after union, when many of the delegates would have left Kansas City so they could be back in their home pulpits by Sunday May 14.  One speaker was Matthew Davage, former editor of the edition of the Advocate intended for African American Methodists and president of 6 denominations colleges.  To further compound the insult, the other speaker on Negro Night was not African American.  He was a firm segregationist, President Henry Snyder, President of Wofford College from 1902-1942.  Snyder had served on the Unification Committee and had been one of the most outspoken members of the Committee in demanding racial segregation. 

 

My one small consolation in this sad story of racism at the Unifying Conference is that President Davage lived long enough to see the rejection of the racist creation of the Central Jurisdiction.  He died in New Orleans in 1976 at the age of 97.

 

 

 

This Week in Texas Methodist History  April 18, 2021

 

Southwestern University Celebrates its Centennial, April 1940

 

Southwestern University claims the honor of being the oldest university in Texas thanks to the charter issued to its root college, Rutersville College, in February 1840, by the Republic of Texas.  Actually classes began a month earlier, in January 1840, before the charter was issued.  The Congress of the Republic of Texas also appropriated 25,000 acres of public land to be sold to benefit the fledgling institution. 

 

In the 1870s the MECS conferences in Texas combined to create Southwestern University from its four root colleges and located the university in Georgetown. 

 

In 1909 Southwestern created Homecoming.  The idea made so much since that it spread throughout the educational world, and continued to be observed at SU.  Unfortunately the COVID pandemic postponed the 2020 Homecoming until this week, April 11-18, when it was conducted virtually. 

 

I have attended several virtual events and having been thinking about SU history and traditions this week.  I wondered how SU celebrated its centennial in 1940, and upon a little research found that it was celebrated during April, the same week we have been celebratng in 2021.

 

Events consumed all of a weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and brought together educational leaders, alums, bishops, politicians, and other friends of the university. 

 

President John W. Bergin planned the program, and designed church officials and former presidents to preside over the sessions.  Former Presidents Bishop and Vivion came from California and Tennessee, respectively, to preside over sessions.  Former board chair, Dr. Claude Cody, Jr., came from Houston where he was a physician,  to preside over another.  His father, Claude Cody, Sr., had come to SU as a professor and served the university in a variety of positions over a long career.  

 

Attendees listened to four addresses on Saturday morning.  I would have been most interested in Judge Ralph Yarborough’s address on the history of Southwestern from Ruter to Bergin.  Yarborough was not an alum and a Baptist.  This is particularly interesting because there has been a continuing argument with Texas Baptists over which came first—Southwestern or Baylor?   Ralph Yarborough later represented Texas in the U. S. Senate. 

 

Another great liberal Texan, spoke that same morning, Homer Price Rainey, President of the University of Texas.  Rainey was also a Baptist, and even a lay preacher.  A previous post on this blog details how Methodist pastors in Austin came to his defense in the battle over academic freedom at UT.  https://txmethhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=heinsohn

 

The Governor of Texas, W. Lee O’Daniel, also spoke.   O’Daniel was the governor who appointed  arch-conservatives to the UT Board.  Their trying to fire economics professors friendly to New Deal economic measures led to the Rainey’s stand for academic freedom.  Burgin asked Rainey speak in the morning and O’Daniel at night.  Their political differences were public knowledge. 

 

Bishops Holt, Boaz, Selecman and Smith all spoke.  Smith and Boaz were former students.  Boaz and Selecman had been presidents of SMU.  Current SMU president Umphrey Lee also spoke. 

 

When Methodists celebrate a centennial, they use it as a fund raiser, and this even was no exception.  Bishop Holt called for increasing the endowment to $2,000,000 and striving for $75,000 in annual giving. 

 

Various alums gave speech of their memories while students.  While reading the news reports of the event, I was struck that not one woman was listed as a speaker.  Today Southwestern is firmly committed to equality, and at the next in-person Homecoming in October 2021, Dr. Laura Trombley, will be formally installed as President of Southwestern.  We can be proud of dear Alma Mater. 

 

This Week in Texas Methodist History April 11, 

 

 

 

Dallas City Improvements Spark Debate:   Small Neighborhood Churches or Large Central Churches?

 April 1946

 

One of the main factors of 20^th century Texas history was the increasing urbanization and suburbanization.   There had been planned “street car suburbs”  in the late 19^th century such as the Houston Heights, but the 20^th century saw continual expansion.  Two periods were especially important in determining population patterns.  The first was the early 20^th century and the rise of petroleum related industries that created vast employment opportunities around the new industrial sites.  The other was the post World War II boom.  For point of reference, the U. S. Census reported that the U. S. population became 50%+ urban in the census of 1920, but Texas achieved that same degree of urbanization in the 1940 census.

 

Methodism in the 19^th century was a system of circuits of small rural churches with a “station” church in the towns—especially the county seats.  The first “second” churches in Texas towns were often built in neighborhoods with concentrations of railroad employees, such as Houston, Marshall, Paris, Palestine, Tyler, and so on. 

 

The post World War II boom in urbanization/suburbanization sparked a debate about the future of church expansion.   The era experienced a baby boom, and many parents wanted to raise their children in a church so church attendance soared.  Should the church build small neighborhood churches or large central churches?  

 

The question became important to the congregation worshiping at the corner of Haskell Ave. and Cabell Street, led by Rev. Sam Black.  The city of Dallas announced that due to a street widening project, the building, built in 1903, would have to be moved.   Should the congregation relocate to a larger property or accept the loss of some of its real estate and stay small? 

 

Congregational meetings were conducted to discuss and debate the issue.  On the one hand, a large church could offer more and more varied programs.  On the other, a small church could offer important work to all the laity.  The neighborhood church faction suggested a church of no more than 750 members.   

 

The debate on Haskell Ave. was repeated throughout the growing cities of Texas---neighborhood church or central large church?   Events overtook the debate.  There was room for both models.  The population of the cities and suburbs grew even faster than anyone thought possible. 

 

 

You may be interested in the site now.  Go to Google Earth.  Access Haskell at Cabell.  Click on street view and see the abandoned building obscured by overgrown shrubbery. 

 

This Week in Texas Methodist History April 4

 

A Personal Reflection on the Anniversary of Dr. King’s Assassination

 

I began this weekly blog in January 2006 and for the most part have avoided personal stories.  I have included some in footnotes as I did last week. 

 

Today, this Easter Sunday, I am thinking about one of the most traumatic days in my life and the life of this country, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on Thursday, April 4, 1968.  The sadness still lingers fifty-three years later.   I, and many members of my generation, had been thrilled and inspired by the courage of the non-violent civil rights struggle of the 1960s of which Dr. King was the most prominent spokesperson.  As adolescents, we were forming the value systems that would guide our lives, and seeing such courage against such violent opposition had a huge impact upon us.

 

One reason the sadness continues is that we naively believed that the progress toward full dignity for all people of all races would continue, but events of the recent past show that progress toward full civil rights is being reversed.  Legislatures in 43 states are considering bills that seek to limit voting participation for minority groups.  Remember that voting rights were the linchpin of the 1960s campaigns.   Overtly racist political campaigns have been successful, and the result has been the lifetime appointment of judges resistant to even the idea of using courts to promote racial equality. 

 

In April, 1968 I was a junior at Southwestern University.  As part of my meditation on Dr. King’s assassination, I re-read the student newspaper, the Megaphone, for April 1968 to help me remember the event.

 

The April 5 issue of the Megaphone covered the assassination on page 1, but the lead article was about the speaking appearance of Senator John Tower later that night.  Senator Tower was an alumnus, who had been elected as the first Republican senator from Texas of the modern era.  In 1968 there was speculation that when Richard Nixon won the Republican nomination for president, he would choose Tower as his running mate. 

 

The April 19 issue of the Megaphone summarized the speech.  Tower mentioned the assassination and denounced it as “cowardly and irrational” act but also distanced himself from Dr. King’s campaign for equal rights.  Nixon, and the Republican Party, were already pursuing the “Southern Strategy” of playing up racial divisions for political gain. 

 

The April 5 issue was full of other political news.  My roommate wrote an editorial welcoming Lyndon Johnson back home to Texas (LBJ had just announced he was noting running for reelection.). 

The editorial presented LBJ as a man who tried very hard but was unappreciated.  The student newspaper weighed in on the candidates for the Democratic nominee for Governor of Texas and chose Eugene Locke.  (He didn’t win, but the night of the primary, I rode with him in the elevator of an Austin hotel.  His “victory party” and a formal dance I was attending were in the same hotel.)

 

Re-reading the Megaphone, I found that I had also supervised an election.  I was the outgoing president of the Men’s Residence Hall Council and had just conducted the election for my replacement. 

 

The most vivid memory comes not from April 4, but from April 9.  That was the day of Dr. King’s funeral.  It was also the start of Easter break so the campus was deserted---almost deserted.  I was still there because I had a campus job.  I maintained the switchboard at one of the residence halls.  There was one telephone for the entire dorm.  I would answer the phone and then buzz the room of the person being called, who would then have to come down to the lobby to talk.  There was only one television for the entire dorm complex, also in the lobby.  I was scheduled to work on April 9 even though I knew all the residents would be gone for Easter.  I looked forward to a quiet day.

 

I had the television on and was watching the funeral.  An African American woman who was part of the custodial staff also watched.  My vivid memory is the two of us in the empty dorm both with tears streaming down our faces as we watched the services for our hero.