This Week in Texas Methodist History December 26, 2021 Texas State Council of Methodist Women Consider Prison Reform , December 1948 One of the expression of progressive Christianity was the Texas State Council of Methodist Women. The TSCMW was organized to lobby legislators on progressive causes. During its heyday of the 1930s and 1940s, it championed such issues as free textbooks, anti-lynching, improved conditions for Mexican migrant workers, prenatal and infant health and so on. Representatives from each of annual conferences constituted the leadership and therefore provided a statewide rather than a regional voice. Right before Christmas in 1948, which was also right before the opening of the new session of the Texas Legislature, the TSCMW met in Dallas to prepare their lobbying effort for the new Legislature. The first issue they considered was the proliferation of slot machines in otherwise legal businesses. Although such devices were illegal, merchants often flouted the law with slot machines, pinball machines, and a lower tech marble game, all of which offered prizes to the lucky winners. The main focus of the meeting, though, was on prison reform. Although the grossest abuses of prisons such as the convict leasing system for convicts to work in cane fields and turpentine operations had been discontinued, plenty of abuses continued. O. B. Ellis, General Manager of the prison system spoke to the women. He asked them to help him secure a $4.2 million dollar appropriation from the Legislature. He wanted to use the funds to turn the agricultural operations of the system more to educating the inmates in modern farming practices rather than merely producing the food and fiber for both prison consumption and sale to civilian markets. His plan also included upgrading the quality of the prison system’s cattle herd by buying animals with better genetics. Although the state was moving toward mechanized agriculture, the prisons still had a surplus of labor and therefore less incentive to mechanize. Ellis wanted to train convicts for the new agricultural regime. Some readers will recognize the name Ellis because one of the units of the current prison system in named in his honor.

This Week in Texas Methodist History December 19, 2021 Advocate Publishes Methodist Radio Programs December 1943 Commercial radio began with the opening of a station in Pittsburgh in 1920. As consumers snapped up the small appliances the radio impacted all areas of society. Advertising and entertainment were obvious areas in which the radio’s impact was revolutionary. So too were politics and religion. FDR’s Fire Side Chats brought words of reassurance and unity during the Depression and World War II. On the other hand divisive voices such as Father Coughlin spread racism and disunity. Broadcast technology was simple enough and local radio stations were eager to fill air time. Methodists took advantage of the new medium. The Methodist Home in Waco became famous for its radio broadcasts which featured the children’s choir. Methodists all over Texas and New Mexico developed a special bond with the Home through the radio programs. Some of the most prominent preachers broadcast their sermons. In December 1943 the Southwestern Advocate advised its readers of those programs. I thought you might like to know who was on the air Houston, Paul Quillian, Dallas, Umphrey Lee and Homer Vanderpool Brownwood Chet Henson Temple Roy Langston Corpus Christi William Wallace San Antonio A. P Shirkey Laredo Richard Heacock Austin Edmund Heinsohn Temple Allen Peacock Waco G. P. Comer Denton Phillip Walker

African American Methodists Report Boom in Houston, Decline in Rural Areas December 17, 1914 The Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church met in Clarksville, convening on December 17, 1914. The report of the Houston District Superintendent revealed huge disparities between the Houston churches and the rural ones of the district. Houston was booming!. The Houston Ship Channel had been opened earlier that year as President Woodrow Wilson pressed a key in the White House that set off a cannon in Houston to official open the huge driver of Houston economic growth. With the almost simultaneous opening of the Panama Canal, Houston was in a good position to assume its position as the dominant port on the Gulf Coast. It eventually replaced New Orleans for that honor even though the Crescent City had huge natural geographic advantages. The Port of Houston’s ascendancy was due mostly to human ambitions rather than advantages of geography. The discovery of petroleum resources near Houston spurring a population explosion that continues more than 100 years later. The boom was reflected in the reports of the Houston churches. On the other hand, 1914 also saw devastating floods on the coastal plain. The Houston District included churches in three river basins, the Brazos, Trinity, and San Jacinto, and all of them flooded in 1914. The churches in Liberty, Columbia, Sweeney, Richmond, Rosenburg, Angleton, Wallisville, Thompson’s, and Kendleton were all on circuits consisting of country churches in addition to the church named as “head of circuit.” Many Methodists in those appointments depended upon livestock and farming and wee devastated by the floods. By contrast most of the Houston appointments were stations instead of circuits. Those churches including Trinity, Sloan Memorial, Mount Vernon, Boynton Chapel, Calvary, and Mallalieu were all prosperous enough to have a full time preacher rather than sharing one on a circuit. The District was also strong enough to start new churches to serve the growing population coming to the boom town. New churches appear at Audubon Place, Dowling Addition, Dyerdale, Cloverleaf. Houston residents will recognize these locations as concentrated in the eastern side of Houston, close to the Port of Houston. District Superintendent W. H. Logan thus had his hands full on the Houston District. He had to deal with destruction in his rural churches and explosive growth in his urban ones.

This Week in Texas Methodist History December 5 Southwestern Christian Advocate Responds to Pearl Harbor, December 11, 1941 As we remember the attack on Pearl Harbor this week, readers will be interested in how the Methodist press reacted to the event. One should remember that the Pearl Harbor attack occurred on a Sunday, and the editors had just a few days to put out a new edition of the weekly Southwestern Christian Advocate. The Advocate was still being run by a committee. The long time editor, A. J. Weeks died in 1939. Retired bishop John M. Moore took over editorial duties for six months, but after that period the editorship was turned over to a committee consisting of Dallas-area pastors—all of whom had other responsibilities. The main committee consisted of Angie Smith (First Methodist), Harry DeVore (D. S.) and J. D. Barron. They were assisted by Walter Vernon, Dawson Bryan, Mrs. T. Herbert Minga, and Ray Nichols. J. D. Pinkston served as business manager. All the staff had other responsibilities. Fortunately the Advocate had facilities in which to operate, The Advocate had space in the Cokesbury store at 1910 Main Street in Dallas. The task of writing about the church’s response to Pearl Harbor fell to Dr. DeVore. He began his editorial entitled Black Sunday “A Sunday so near the celebration of the coming of the Prince of Peace! Yet we are at war! A war thrust upon us. Next to the liquor and narcotic traffic of the world, war is the greatest enemy of mankind. “ DeVore went on to encourage Methodists to defend their nation. He used imagery similar to that used by FDR when the President proposed the Lend Lease program, that of a fire. FDR had said Lend Lease was like loaning your neighbor a water hose when his house was on fire. DeVore called the attack on Pearl Harbor a four alarm fire. For the next four years the Advocate published numerous letters from military chaplains who had left local church pastorates to enter the chaplaincy. The editorial position of the Advocate consistently supported the patriotic defense of the US.