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WORK TITLE: Born of Conviction
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: c. 1954
WEBSITE:
CITY: Emory
STATE: VA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.ehc.edu/files/7513/9026/3559/cv-joseph_reiff.pdf * http://www.umc.org/news-and-media/mississippi-pastors-paid-price-for-segregation-challenge * http://www.heraldcourier.com/community/dr-joseph-t-reiff-has-released-born-of-conviction/article_4ceeb36f-d164-54d2-9248-b87d9b24f9a7.html * https://global.oup.com/academic/product/born-of-conviction-9780190246815?cc=us&lang=en&#
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born c. 1954.
EDUCATION:Attended Wesleyan University, 1972-74; Millsaps College, B.A., 1976; Emory University, M.Div., M.A. (magna cum laude), 1980, Ph.D., 1992.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Emory & Henry College, Emory, VA, assistant professor of religion, 1990-98, associate professor, 1998-2012, professor of religion, 2012–, chair of department of religion, 1998–, director, Powell Resource Center, 2009-10; acting chair, humanities division, 2013.
AWARDS:Excellence in Teaching Award, Humanities Division, Emory & Henry College, 1996-97; Exemplary Teaching Award, General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, United Methodist Church, 2000-01; Hope Award, Appalachian Center for Community Service, 2003.
WRITINGS
Contributor to books, including Nancy T. Ammerman and Wade Clark Roof, editors, Work, Family, and Religion in Contemporary Society, Routledge (New York, NY), 1995; A.C. Gaia, editor, Western Tradition: Selected Readings, Copley Publishing, 2001, 8th edition, 2008; L. Edward Phillips and Billy Vaughan, editors, Courage to Bear Witness: Essays in Honor of Gene L. Davenport, Pickwick Publications (Eugene, OR), 2009; Ted Ownby, editor, The Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi, University Press of Mississippi (Jackson, MS), 2013; Mississippi Encyclopedia, University Press of Mississippi (Jackson, MS), 2014; Teena F. Horn, Alan, Huffman, John G. Jones, and Claiborne Barksdale, editors, Lines Were Drawn: Remembering Court-Ordered Integration at a Mississippi High School, University Press of Mississippi (Jackson, MS), 2016. Contributor to professional journals and other periodicals, including Christian Century, Journal of Empirical Theology, Journal of Pastoral Theology, Methodist History, Presbyterian Outlook, and Quarterly Review.
SIDELIGHTS
In his monograph Born of Conviction: White Methodists and Mississippi’s Closed Society, Emory & Henry College professor of religion Joseph T. Reiff writes about a little-remembered footnote to the Civil Rights movement of the early 1960s. “Even among Southern states, Mississippi had a reputation for near lockstep white resistance to integration,” wrote Sam Hodges in a review on the United Methodist Church Web site. “’Mississippi: the Closed Society’ was the title of a 1964 book by James Silver, a historian at the University of Mississippi. That university had seen two killed and hundreds injured in a Sept. 30, 1962 riot over the imminent enrollment of James Meredith as its first black student. A cadre of young pastors in the Mississippi Conference felt compelled by events and the gospel to speak out.” The group issued a statement, known as the “Born of Conviction” statement, which declared that racial segregation was incompatible with Christian principles. “The statement,” said Hodges, “demanded freedom of the pulpit, affirmed the United Methodist Book of Discipline’s stand against racial discrimination and insisted public schools should be kept open after desegregation.”
The response was immediate and violent. The signers were condemned, threatened, and many of them fled the area for their own safety and that of their families. “I don’t want to argue that this is some step towards civil rights,” Reiff told Joe Tennis in an interview appearing in the Bristol Herald Courier. “But this ‘Born of Conviction’ statement, at least, was a step towards giving whites who were not gung-ho segregationists that permission to say so (and) the encouragement to know that there were some church leaders who disagreed” with segregation. “Reiff said there were many things that were much more pivotal than the Born of Conviction statement in the history of the Civil Rights Movement,” said Lareeca Rucker in an interview with the signers appearing on her eponymous Web site the Lareeca Rucker Home Page, “but it was a notable step. ‘I think a lot of white Mississippians could fairly easily dismiss the Civil Rights Movement folks as outside agitators or crazy,’ he said, “but it was much less easy to dismiss ministers of the white Methodist churches who had grown up in Mississippi, who were leaders of their communities.… I think it teaches that people need to speak their convictions,’ Reiff said, ‘particularly in situations where there is injustice.”
Critics were impressed with Reiff’s monograph. The professor “conveys us to the highly controversial signing, through congregational and conference responses, and to the decisions that led twenty to head out of Mississippi,” stated Russell E. Richey in Methodist History. “A number of the latter went on to prominent denominational leadership roles, among them Max ie Dunnam and James Waits. Treating their various subsequent positions, including heading Asbury and Candler, Reiff provides similar biographical narratives for each of the signers. He groups those who quit Mississippi and those who stayed, treating some of the signers in those chapters…. To the biographies, though short, Reiff comes through incredible archival and oral history research as his endnotes indicate.” “This book joins a growing body of recent scholarly literature which has found in white Mississippi Christians’ responses to the civil rights movement a rich, complex interplay of laypeople, state politicians, and the ecclesiastical polity at various levels,” wrote Trent Brown in the Clarion Ledger. “Any sympathetic reader will appreciate the great pressures facing white Mississippi churches and the courage displayed by these Methodist ministers.” Born of Conviction “adds to the literature about civil rights era Methodists, highlighting the role of racial moderates,” stated E.R. Crowther in Choice. “In this complex and nuanced history, scholars and graduate students will also find that Reiff brings the story up to date by including the United Methodist Church’s struggle over same-sex marriage, relating how some of the same “Born of Conviction” pastors have responded to those controversies,” declared Colin B. Chapell in the Journal of Southern Religion. “Born of Conviction is a nuanced, mature study that takes the faith stances of both progressives and segregationists seriously.” “Readers,” said a reviewer for the Project on Lived Theology Web site, “will walk away understanding the issues facing the Methodist Church in the 1960s, while simultaneously seeing how individuals fit into that larger picture.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Bristol Herald Courier, November 29, 2015, Joe Tennis, “Dr. Joseph T. Reiff Has Released ‘Born of Conviction.’”
Choice, April. 2016, E.R. Crowther, review of Born of Conviction: White Methodists and Mississippi’s Closed Society, p. 1184.
Clarion-Ledger, February 6, 2016, Trent Brown, review of Born of Conviction.
Journal of Southern Religion, 2016, Colin B. Chapell, review of Born of Conviction.
Methodist History, April, 2016, Russell E. Richey, review of Born of Conviction, p. 216.
ONLINE
Emory & Henry College Web site, http://www.ehc.edu/ (April 5, 2017), author profile.
Lareeka Rucker, http://www.lareecarucker.com/ (April 5, 2017), “’Born of Conviction’ Statement ‘an Atomic Bomb.’”
Oxford University Press Web site, https://global.oup.com/ (April 5, 2017), review of Born of Conviction.
Project on Lived Theology, http://www.livedtheology.org/ (April 25, 2016), review of Born of Conviction.
United Methodist Church, http://www.umc.org/ (February 8, 2016), Sam Hodges, “Mississippi Pastors Paid Price for Segregation Challenge.”*
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1CURRICULUM VITAE JOSEPH T. REIFFEmory & Henry CollegeP. O. Box 947Emory, Virginia 24327-0947(276) 944-6784 (voice) / 944-6934 (fax) / e-mail: jtreiff@ehc.eduEDUCATIONB.A., English, Millsaps College, 1976 (attended Wesleyan University, 1972-74)M.Div., Emory University, 1980, Magna Cum LaudePh.D., Religion, Emory University, 1992Major Area of Study: Theology and Personality, with emphasis in Practical Theology, Christian Education and Developmental Studies, Congregational StudiesMinor Areas of Study: Sociology of Religion, Social EthicsDISSERTATIONA Practical Theology of Congregational Studies, Ecclesiology, and Formation/Commitment in the Congregation: The Story of St. Paul United Methodist Church; James W. Fowler, DirectorMINISTERIAL CREDENTIALSFull Member, Mississippi Conference, The United Methodist Church Ordained Deacon, 1978; Elder, 1981 CURRENT POSITIONProfessor of Religion and Chair of Religion Department, 2012-; Associate Professor of Religion and Chair of Religion Department, Emory & Henry College,1998-2012; Assistant Professor of Religion, Emory & Henry College, 1990-1998Courses Taught: New Testament Survey, Introduction to Christian Faith, Old Testament Survey, Church and World, Psychological Development and Religious Faith, The Christian Faith in Literature, Church and Community Ministries; Human Foundations (First-year Humanities Core Curriculum Course), “Baseball: More than a Game” (Transitions I Engaging the Liberal Arts course for first-year students); Moral Choices and Christian Faith (Ethical Inquiry), The Church's Educational Ministry, Ministry with Children,Ministry with Youth, History of Methodism, Seminar (Christian Ethics), Freshman Western Tradition (discussion section); Independent Studies in Practical Theology of Pastoral Ministry, Youth Ministry, New Testament Ethics, Theologically Reflective Writing, Christian Perspectives on Death, Appalachian Mountain Religion, The Problem of God, and Wesleyan Theology; Directed numerous internships in Children's, Youth, and Campus MinistriesOTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCEActingChair, Humanities Division, Emory & Henry College, Spring 2013Interim Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Director, Powell Resource Center, Emory &Henry College, 2009-10Director, Human Foundations Course, Emory & Henry College Core Curriculum, 2008-09, 2010-2013Director, Freshman Western Tradition Program, Emory & Henry College, 1993-1999, 2003Grad Research Assistant, Rollins Center for Church Ministries' "The Faith and Practice of theCongregation" project, Candler School of Theology, Emory U., Summer, 1988-1989Grad Research Assistant, Center for Faith Development, Candler School of Theology, 1985-88Teaching Assistant, Candler School of Theology, 1985-87, in three courses: The Ministerin the Church and the World, Educational Dynamics of Small Groups, Society and Personality
2Joseph T. ReiffOTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE, continuedWorkshop Leader/Guest Speaker on Faith Development, Christian Education, Biblical Studies, and Christian Ethics in various settings for pastors, Christian educators, and laity at conference, district, and local church levels, 1980-presentPastor, Trinity United Methodist Church, Jackson, MS, 1982-85Pastor, Scooba-Binnsville United Methodist Churches, Scooba, MS, 1980-82Assistant Pastor/Youth Minister, Mount Bethel United Methodist Church, Marietta, GA, 1977-79AWARDS AND HONORSExternal:Mednick Travel Award, Virginia Foundation of Independent Colleges, 2007Religious Institutions Grant (sabbatical support), Louisville Institute, 2005-2006Exemplary Teaching Award, General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, The United Methodist Church, 2000-01Participant, DuPont Faculty Seminar, National Center for the Humanities, June, 1999Mellon Short-Term Stipend Grant, Appalachian College Association, Summer 1992Dissertation Fellowship in Congregational Studies, The Congregational History Project, Institutefor the Advanced Study of Religion, University of Chicago,1989-90Dempster Graduate Fellowship, The United Methodist Church, 1988-89Member, "Youth Ministry in Theological Schools" Doctoral Seminar, Lilly Endowment, 1987-88Emory & Henry College:Research Support, Fugate Fund, Summer 2011McConnell Scholarship (Research Support), Summer 2009Appalachian Center for Community Service Faculty Development Grant, 2008McConnell Scholarship (Research Support), Summer 2004Hope Award, Appalachian Center for Community Service, 2003Excellence in Teaching Award, Humanities Division, 1996-97Mellon Faculty Summer Individual Research Grant, 1993 and 1995PUBLICATIONSBooks(in preparation):Born of Conviction: White Methodists and Mississippi’s “Closed Society,” submission to auniversity pressplannedby late2013.Book Chapters and Peer Reviewed Articles:“Born of Conviction: White Mississippians Argue Civil Rights in 1963,” in Ted Ownby, ed., The Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi, University Press of Mississippi, forthcoming 2013.“‘Born of Conviction’ Statement,” Mississippi Encyclopedia, University Press of Mississippi, in press, expected publication date 2014.“Conflicting Convictions in White Mississippi Methodism,” Methodist HistoryXLIX, 3 (April, 2011): 162-175.“Born of Conviction: White Methodist Witness to Mississippi’s Closed Society,” in L. Edward Phillips and Billy Vaughan, Editors, Courage to Bear Witness: Essays in Honor of GeneL. Davenport, Wipf and Stock, 2009.“‘We’re Sticking’: Memories of Murrah High School Desegregation,” in John G. Jones, Teena F. Horn, and Alan Huffman, eds., The Lines Were Drawn: Narratives on the Success and Failure of School Desegregation in Jackson, Mississippi, 1969-1975, University Press of Mississippi, forthcoming 2014."The Resurrection of a Congregation: The Story of St. Paul United Methodist Church," Quarterly Review16/4 (Winter 1996-1997): 325-341.
PUBLICATIONS, Book Chapters and Peer Reviewed Articles, continued"Commitment in a Congregation of 'Cultural Left' Baby Boomers," Journal of Pastoral Theology 6:93-118."Nurturing and Equipping Children in the 'Public Church,'" in Nancy T. Ammerman and WadeClark Roof, Editors, Work, Family, and Religion in Contemporary Society. New York: Routledge, 1995.Book Reviews:Review of William G. McAtee, Transformed: A White Mississippi Pastor’s Journey into Civil Rights and Beyond,Presbyterian Outlook194, 2(January 23, 2012):24.“Mission Mississippi: A Venture in Racial Reconciliation,”Feature Review of Peter Slade, Open Friendship in a Closed Society: Mission Mississippi and a Theology of Friendship, Christian Century128, 5 (March 8, 2011): 30-32. "A review of The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach, 2nd Edition, by Ralph W.Hood, Bernard Spilka, Bruce Hunsberger, and Richard L. Gorsuch," Journal of EmpiricalTheology11/1998/2.Course Texts:Co-Editor, Human Foundations: Some Central Human Questions, Third Edition, Foundations I ClassTextbook, Copley, 2012, and Fourth Edition, 2013“Human Foundations: An Introduction,” and “Athens and Jerusalem,” in Reiff and Hare, Human Foundations: Some Central Human Questions, Fourth Edition, Copley, 2013.“Ethics,” “Aristophanes’ Lysistrata,” “The Sermon on the Mount” (co-authored with Fred Kellogg), “How Do We Celebrate Life?,” “Partying in the Kingdom of God” (co-authored with David St. Clair), “What is the Just Society?” (co-authored with Jack Wells and Scott Boltwood), allin Reiff and Hare, Human Foundations: Some Central Human Questions, Copley 2012 and 2013.Co-Editor, Human Foundations: Knowledge, Ethics, and Community, Second Edition, Foundations I Class Textbook, Copley, 2011.Ethics Theme Editor, Human Foundations: Knowledge, Ethics,and Community, First Edition, Foundations I Class Textbook, Copley, 2010.“Christian Views of Violence during the Crusades,” co-authored with Jack Wells and Stephen Sieck, in J. Laurence Hare, ed., Human Foundations, Copley, 2010.“Erasmus and the Christian Search for Religious Truth in the 16thCentury,” in J. Laurence Hare, ed., Human Foundations, Copley, 2010.“Ethics: Theme Introduction,” in J. Laurence Hare, ed., Human Foundations, Copley, 2010.“New Testament Visions of Community: Women in the Early Church,” in J. Laurence Hare, ed.,Human Foundations, Copley, 2010.“Women in Early Christianity,” in A. C. Gaia, ed. Western Tradition: Selected Readings, Copley Publishing, Editions 1-8 (2001-2008).“Protestant Reformation,” in A. C. Gaia, ed. Western Tradition: Selected Readings, Copley Publishing, Editions 1-8 (2001-2008).“Catholic/Counter Reformation,” A. C. Gaia, ed. Western Tradition: Selected Readings, Copley Publishing, Editions 1-8 (co-authored with Michael Puglisi).PAPERS, LECTURES, PRESENTATIONS, OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITYManuscript Reviewer, University Press of Mississippi, 2013“Born of Conviction: Methodist Ministers Provoking Civil Rights Debate in 1963 Mississippi,” Wesleyan Studies Group, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, October 30,2010.Talkback (with Kathryn Dickinson, playwright) following performance of “Born of Conviction”
4play, Irondale Theater, Brooklyn, NY, October 23, 2010.Joseph T. ReiffPAPERS, LECTURES, PRESENTATIONS, OTHER ACTIVITY, continued“Born of Conviction: White Mississippians Argue Civil Rights in 1963,” Porter Fortune HistorySymposium on “The Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi,” University of Mississippi, February 18-20, 2010 (invited participant).“Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound,” Emory & Henry College Fall Convocation Address, August 25, 2009.“Born of Conviction: White Methodists and Mississippi’s ‘Closed Society,’” American Historical Association Annual Meeting, 2008.“A Conference in Cultural Captivity: White Mississippi Methodists and the 1963 ‘Born of Conviction’ Statement,” Wesleyan Studies Group, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, 2006.“‘Born of Conviction:’ White Methodist Ministers Speaking to Mississippi’s ‘Closed Society.’”Millsaps Forum, Millsaps College, 2006“‘Born of Conviction:’ White Methodist Ministers Speaking to Mississippi’s ‘Closed Society.’”Lyceum Lecture, Emory & Henry College, 2005; Virginia Highlands Festival Emory &Lecture Series, 2005.Manuscript Reviewer, Review of Religious Research, 2005-06Convener/Discussion Leader for Sessions on "Social Sources of Religious Affiliation in YoungPeople” and "Religion and Homosexuality." Society for the Scientific Study of Religionand Religious Research Association Annual Meeting, 1997.Convener/Discussion Leader for Sessions on "Denominational Cultures and Congregational Life"and "The Dynamics of Faith Transformation: Micro and Macro Perspectives." SSSR / RRA Annual Meeting, 1996."Baby Boomers in a Mainline Protestant Congregation: A Dialogue with Recent Literature on Baby Boomer Religion." SSSR Annual Meeting, 1995."Commitment in a Congregation of 'Cultural Left' Baby Boomers." Society for Pastoral Theology Annual Meeting, 1995."Christian Congregations as Sub-Cultures." 27th Annual Willson-Gross Lectures, Union College, Barbourville, KY, 1993."Nurturing and Equipping Children in the 'Public Church.'" Society for the Scientific Study ofReligion Annual Meeting, 1989."In Search of the 'Impartial Spectator.'" American Academy of Religion Southeast RegionalMeeting, 1987."Triadic or 'Mediated' Faith?: Asking Theological Questions of Faith Development Theory." Person, Culture, and Religion Group, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, 1986.SELECTED CHURCH-RELATED PRESENTATIONS“Jesus and Non-Violence: Matthew 5 and Church Tradition,” First United Methodist Church, Bristol, TN, March 3, 2013.“Preaching the Advent Lections from the Gospel of Luke,” Holston Conference Abingdon District Ministers, November 3, 2009.“Would the Community Notice If Your Church Was Gone?” Workshop for Clergy and Laity, Wytheville District (Holston Conference UMC) Day Apart, September 12, 2009“What Is the Word of God for Social Justice? Pastoral Courage and Commitment in Mississippi’s Civil Rights Struggle,” Glenn Memorial UMC (Atlanta) combined adultSunday School classes, with JamesL. Waits, July 19, 2009“The Gospel of Mark: Parable for Discipleship,” Six-week Wednesday evening study, AbingdonUMC, Lent 2009
5“The Gospel of Luke,” Central Presbyterian Church, Bristol, VA, March 7, 2007.Joseph T. ReiffSELECTED CHURCH-RELATED PRESENTATIONS, continued“Who Is This Jesus We Follow?” Twelve-week Adult Sunday School series on the Gospels, First UMC, Bristol, Tennessee, Winter/Spring 2007Preached for Morning Worship at various UMC congregations in Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi, 1990-present“Christian Faith and the Mystery of Death,” Wednesday evening ecumenical series, St. John Lutheran Church, Abingdon, April 1998Retreat Leader for Board of Directors, Bolivar County (Mississippi) Habitat for Humanity, January 1998SERVICE ACTIVITY, EMORY & HENRY COLLEGEMember, Presidential Search Committee, Emory & Henry College, 2012-2013Member, Faculty Advisory Committee, 1998-2000, 2001-2003, 2004-05, 2007-2009, 2011-2014;Chair, 1998-1999Faculty Sponsor, Association for Religious Diversity (student organization), 2012-presentMember, Library Committee, 2011-2014Member, Quantitative Literacy Committee, 2011-2013Faculty Marshal, 2010-presentMember, College Planning and Assessment Committee, 2010-2013Member, Academic Council, Dean’s Cabinet, and Academic Standards Committee, 2009-2010Member, Chaplain’s Advisory Committee, 2009-11; Spiritual Life Council, 2011-presentMember, Retention Planning Committee, 2009-2010Member, President’s Task Force to develop the Institute for Sustainable Communities, 2008-09Author of Report on College’s Church-Relatedness for United Methodist Church University Senate Visiting Team, 2007Member, College Benefits Committee, 2006-2011Member, College Enrollment Management Team, 2006-2007Member, College Vision Committee, 2003-2005Faculty Representative to Board of Trustees, 1998-2001Member, Faculty Academic Standards Committee, 2000-2003; Chair, 2002-2003Chair, Task Force on Faculty Governance, 1998-2000Member, Faculty Committee on Committees, 1996-1999; Chair, Fall, 1997Member, Advisory Committee for the Appalachian Center for Community Service, 1995-2001Member, Religious Life Committee of the College Board of Trustees, 1993-2001Member, Faculty Library and Academic Resources Committee, 1994-1996Secretary, SACS Self-Study Committee on Student Development Services, 1994-1996Member, Bonner Scholars Advisory Committee, 1994-1997Member, Faculty Special Academic Programs Committee, 1991-94 (Chair, 1992-1994)Advisor, Kerygma (Student Church Vocations Group), 1990-2001SERVICE ACTIVITY, THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCHVarious preaching and teaching engagements on and off campus, 1990-present Chair, Bishop's Task Force on Children and Poverty, Holston Conference, 1997-1998Core Group Member, Holston Conference Council on Children's Ministries, 1994-1998; Chair, 1996-1997; Member, Holston Conference Council on Ministries, 1996-1998Education Coordinator, Abingdon District Council on Ministries, and Member, HolstonConference Education Work Area,1994-1996Sunday School Teacher in Adult, Youth, and Children's classes, Abingdon United Methodist Church, periodically 1991-2004 (Middle School teacher on weekly basis, 1996-2003)
6Chair, Mississippi Conference Young Adult Ministries Council, 1980-1984Joseph T. ReiffCURRENT SERVICE ACTIVITY, EMORY UNIVERSITYAlumni Mentor for a current Religion Ph.D. candidate, Laney Graduate School, Emory University, 2011-presentMEMBERSHIPS HELDAmerican Academy of ReligionReligious Research AssociationSouthern Historical AssociationPhi Eta Sigma (E&H Chapter—inducted as honorary member)
Mississippi pastors paid price for segregation challenge
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By Sam Hodges
Feb. 8, 2016 | UMNS
On Jan. 2, 1963, 28 white Methodist pastors in Mississippi published a statement titled “Born of Conviction.” It amounted to a declaration of independence from the arch-segregationist views that seemed unassailable in their state.
The swift backlash included death threats, slashed tires and crosses burned in parsonage yards. Within 18 months, 17 of the pastors had bolted the state. Two others departed soon after, and the 20th had left by 1971.
Although big news in Mississippi at the time, the statement would eventually recede into the footnotes of civil rights history. For Joseph T. Reiff (rhymes with “life”), it was buried treasure.
“The story needed to be told, and I thought, ʽI can tell this story,’” he said.
Reiff, a United Methodist elder and religion professor at United Methodist-related Emory & Henry College in Virginia, spent 12 years balancing teaching and administrative duties with researching and writing the new book “Born of Conviction: White Methodists and Mississippi’s Closed Society.”
Published by Oxford University Press, it’s the first full-length, scholarly account of the statement and its aftermath.
Among those grateful for Reiff’s labor is the Rev. Jim Waits, who as a young Mississippi pastor not only signed but also helped craft the statement.
“I’m just impressed with his commitment to this project and his dedication over these many years,” Waits, retired dean of Candler School of Theology, said of Reiff. “He’s done more research than anybody would have ever expected.”
Be sure to add the alt. text
The new book “Born of Conviction” tells of a 1963 statement published by 28 white Methodist pastors of Mississippi, challenging prevailing segregationist views. Dust jacket image courtesy Oxford University Press.
Cracking the ʽClosed Society’
Even among Southern states, Mississippi had a reputation for near lockstep white resistance to integration. “Mississippi: the Closed Society” was the title of a 1964 book by James Silver, a historian at the University of Mississippi. That university had seen two killed and hundreds injured in a Sept. 30, 1962 riot over the imminent enrollment of James Meredith as its first black student.
A cadre of young pastors in the Mississippi Conference felt compelled by events and the gospel to speak out. Waits joined the Revs. Maxie Dunnam, Jerry Furr and Jerry Trigg at Dunnam’s southeast Mississippi fishing cabin and worked up a document of some 600 words.
“Born of the deep conviction of our souls as to what is morally right,” they wrote, “we have been driven to seek the foundations of such convictions in the expressed witness of our Church.”
The statement demanded freedom of the pulpit, affirmed the United Methodist Book of Discipline’s stand against racial discrimination and insisted public schools should be kept open after desegregation. It also expressed opposition to communism.
“You look at the statement now, and it doesn’t seem all that radical,” Reiff said. “But given the context in which it was published, it was.”
The drafters found 24 conference colleagues willing to sign. The statement came out in The Mississippi Methodist Advocate, with editor Sam Ashmore adding a note of support.
But reaction to the statement “was like a bomb exploding,” the Rev. Rod Entrekin, one of the signers, would write later.
Reiff’s book details the suffering some pastors and their families faced, including demands of dismissal, withheld pay and verbal harassment. The Rev. Joe Way and his family were so ostracized by his congregation that his 3-year-old daughter proclaimed tearfully, “Nobody loves us anymore.”
An exodus began, and eventually 20 of the pastors would scatter, with enough going to the Southern California-Arizona Conference that they would constitute a celebrated “Mississippi Mafia.”
But the “spoke out, forced out” narrative is too simple, Reiff writes.
He notes that internal Mississippi Conference politics played a big role in pastors wanting to leave. While some who signed faced hostility from their congregations, others, like Waits, saw little trouble.
Mississippi Conference Bishop Marvin Franklin did not support the signers, but the conference lay leader, J.P. Stafford, stood by them. The faculty of Millsaps College, a Methodist school in Jackson, Mississippi, and alma mater of many of the signers, also offered support.
Reiff argues that the story is all the more nuanced by the fact that eight pastors would remain in Mississippi. Some of those had a hard time, but they felt called to stick it out and work long-term for improved race relations.
“You have to applaud those who did stay,” Waits said. “Many of them had significant ministries on the race question after the statement was issued.”
Did the statement itself bring change, apart from causing or quickening the departure of some of the state’s more progressive pastors?
Reiff believes it at least showed a crack in the Closed Society and gave voice to other white Mississippi Methodists who had moderate to liberal racial views.
He doesn’t equate the pastors’ commitment or risk to that of front-line activists, including Medgar Evers, a black Mississippian and NAACP field secretary who was assassinated in 1963.
“But (the statement signers) paid a price for saying something prophetic to the church,” Reiff said.
A long labor of love
One could make the case that Reiff was born to write “Born of Conviction.” Much of his childhood was in Jackson, where his father, Lee Reiff, taught religion at Millsaps. His mother, Gerry Reiff would, in later years, be an archivist for the Mississippi Conference.
Reiff, 61, would himself attend Millsaps and pastor churches in Mississippi before becoming a professor. As a boy, he watched with his family as police arrested a small group trying to integrate services at their church, Jackson’s Capitol Street Methodist.
“The whole issue of how the white church, especially the white Methodist church, dealt with those issues in the ̛60s has been in the background of my consciousness throughout my life,” Reiff said, noting that his parents were civil rights supporters.
In 2004, Reiff drove around the country to interview surviving signers of the statement. There were 20, and he got interviews with all but one.
Now, with the book finally out, just 14 signers are alive.
Finishing the book took years because of Reiff’s commitments at Emory & Henry, but also because of further research and the challenge of writing a book with 28 protagonists.
“I took too long, but part of it was just trying to get my mind around, ʽHow I can best tell this story? How I can help readers get into it without getting bogged down?’ ” he said.
Reiff has begun to do events related to the book, and he’ll speak at Millsaps on Feb. 18.
He’s been hearing back positively from the surviving pastors.
“One of the signers told me early on that he didn’t think anybody would be interested in this. I think I’ve proved him wrong.”
Hodges, a United Methodist News Service writer, lives in Dallas. Contact him at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org
Dr. Joseph T. Reiff has released “Born of Conviction.”
JOE TENNIS BRISTOL HERALD COURIER Nov 29, 2015 (0)
Dr. Joseph T. Reiff has released “Born of Conviction.”
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EMORY, Va. – Dr. Joseph T. Reiff explored the neighborhoods of his childhood in his new book – and unveils a compelling story, too.
This professor of religion at Emory & Henry College, in turn, took on the task of proving that race relations in the Deep South during the 1960s were not as clearly defined as some think - or even remember.
That, in a nutshell, is the mission with Reiff’s new book, "Born of Conviction: White Methodists and Mississippi’s Closed Society" (Oxford University Press, $35, 2015).
"It's this story of these 28 white Methodist ministers, in Mississippi, who respond to this massive resistance climate in Mississippi, most directly to the Ole Miss riot in the fall of 1962, and they felt like the church needed to say something to indicate that the Christian faith and the ‘Southern Way of Life’ is not the same thing."
The "Ole Miss" riot occurred at the University of Mississippi ("Ole Miss") in 1962 as a fight between Southern segregationist civilians and both federal and state forces. It came about as a protest against the enrollment of a black United States military veteran, James Meredith, at the university in Oxford, Mississippi.
"The Southern Way of Life," Reiff said, was "a code word for segregation and white supremacy."
Reiff knew a bit about this story while growing up in Jackson, Mississippi.
"I was a kid when it happened, and I was not aware of it at the time," he said.
Still, it was quite another task - for a dozen years - as the Abingdon, Virginia, resident took time to put all this together in a book.
"People need to read this story because it fleshes out what was going on in the white community," Reiff said.
What the author unfolds is a story that says not all white people were for segregation at that time in the Deep South, he said.
"It is a story of a group of ministers whose statement and the reaction to it basically helped cause a crack in that facade - that united front," Reiff said. "I don't want to argue that this is some step towards civil rights ... But this 'Born of Conviction' statement, at least, was a step towards giving whites who were not gung-ho segregationists that permission to say so (and) the encouragement to know that there were some church leaders who disagreed with the party line."
But it's more than that, Reiff promised.
"You really get an in-depth view of white responses to the social upheaval from the black freedom struggles or civil rights movement."
Reiff, 61, has taught religion at Emory & Henry since 1990. Previously, he served as a pastor in Mississippi.
"Born of Conviction" is his first book.
"It's an attempt to let people know that there were white Christians, in the South, who knew that the system was wrong ... and spoke out to say so," Reiff said. "This is my story, too, because I'm a white Methodist from Mississippi, as well."
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Born of Conviction
White Methodists and Mississippi's Closed Society
Joseph T. Reiff
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Joseph T. Reiff grew up in Mississippi and graduated from Millsaps College and Emory University's Candler School of Theology. From 1980-1985, he served as a United Methodist pastor in the Mississippi Conference, and then returned to Emory to complete a Ph.D. He is currently Professor of Religion and Chair of the Religion Department at Emory & Henry College.
Reiff, Joseph T.: Born of conviction: white Methodists and Mississippi's closed society
E.R. Crowther
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries. 53.8 (Apr. 2016): p1184.
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Reiff, Joseph T. Born of conviction: white Methodists and Mississippi's closed society. Oxford, 2016. 384p bibl index afp ISBN 9780190246815 cloth, $35.00; ISBN 9780190246822 ebook, contact publisher for price
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In 1963, in the wake of James Meredith's admission to the University of Mississippi and months before the assassination of civil rights activist Medgar Evers, 28 native-born Mississippi Methodist ministers signed a formal declaration decrying the racism that made Mississippi the poster child of white supremacy. This powerful monograph by Reiff (religion, Emory and Henry College) contextualizes the declaration in the world of Mississippi's white Methodism, dominated by ministerial conservative Willard Leggett and segregationist John Satterfield. Reiff follows the 28 signatories, some of whom were forced to abandon the pulpits, some of whom chose exodus, and some of whom stayed behind. He explores the significance of the "Born of Conviction" statement as a prophetic challenge to the closed society of 1960s Mississippi, especially its power to shape Mississippi Methodism's evolving but incomplete struggle to overcome racism. Rich in biographical detail of the signers, their contemporaries, and those they inspired, this monograph adds to the literature about civil rights era Methodists, highlighting the role of racial moderates and their struggles to live out the dictates of their faith in a society ravaged by its tragic history. Summing Up: *** Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.--E. R. Crowther, Adams State University
Review: 'Born of Conviction' examines 1960s Mississippi
Trent Brown, Special to The Clarion-Ledger 1:00 p.m. CT Feb. 6, 2016
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There were always white Mississippi Protestants who believed that racial segregation represented a flat contradiction of Jesus’s teachings of community and belonging. Men such as Will Campbell and Ed King are rightly recognized by historians and (belatedly and irregularly) by their own brethren as examples of a deep, exemplary faith.
Joseph Reiff’s "Born of Conviction: White Methodists and Mississippi’s Closed Society" (Oxford University Press) tells the story of 28 men and the document before which they took their stand. The statement to which the book’s title refers, written in 1962 and published in the :Mississippi Methodist Advocate" in 1963, counseled readers that the basic demands of Christian faith as well as the Methodist Discipline condemned racially divisive policies.
The response to that statement was immediate and overwhelmingly negative. By the middle of 1964, well over half the Methodist clergymen who signed the statement had left the state. Who were these men and why did they take such a public position?
Reiff explains that the signers had followed recent events — especially the fiasco in Oxford — with dismay, and concluded that a group of native Mississippians “who couldn’t be dismissed as outsiders,” as one put it, “ought to say something.” Reiff tells their story fully and clearly. The signers of this statement and their fate deserve the broad audience that this book will rightly command.
This book joins a growing body of recent scholarly literature which has found in white Mississippi Christians’ responses to the civil rights movement a rich, complex interplay of laypeople, state politicians, and the ecclesiastical polity at various levels.
Any sympathetic reader will appreciate the great pressures facing white Mississippi churches and the courage displayed by these Methodist ministers who called on their brethren to open their hearts and pulpits to the free expression and exploration of Christian truth.
Reiff’s book is less convincing when he reads the statement and the subsequent careers of its signers as evidence that that the state contained significant numbers of whites who opposed segregation and who exploited the Methodist statement as a “crack” in the edifice of white supremacy. Yes, a number of the signers received private messages of encouragement, but the fact that those messages were private must certainly suggest something of the tenacity of racism within the Methodist Church in the 1960s.
And the fact that eight of the 28 signers remained in the state until retirement does indeed prove that not everyone who spoke out was forced out, but that ratio seems less impressive than Reiff imagines. Nor is it clear that the statement led neatly to the 1973 merger of the white and black Mississippi Methodist conferences in the state.
Ten years is a long time. Much indeed changed in Mississippi in that that decade. But to attribute that change too generously, as I think this book does, to a latent white discontent with segregation — one that has been insufficiently appreciated by historians — is tough to swallow. Too much blood and too many tears offer testimony to a story in which white good will was simply not a principle engine of social progress in Mississippi.
Many white Mississippi churches and Christians continue to express hostility to the broader claims of social justice, racial or otherwise. The vision of what used to be called a beloved community, on the other hand, is certainly present in some places in the state, for instance in the ethic that has long been embraced by black Protestants, as well as by Catholics influenced by Church teachings such as Gaudium et spes (1965). But Rieff’s book is a major work by an accomplished scholar who knows the Mississippi Methodist church through experience, training and service. Mississippians who want to know about the complexities of the struggle for social change in the state will learn much here.
Trent Brown, a McComb native, is associate professor of American studies at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Missouri. He is the author of three books, most recent "Ed King’s Mississippi: Behind the Scenes of Freedom Summer" (University Press of Mississippi, 2014), co-authored with Rev. Ed King. Brown edits "Civil Rights in Mississippi," a series forthcoming from the University Press of Mississippi.
Signing
Joseph T. Reiff will sign "Born of Conviction" at 5 p.m. Feb. 18 at Lemuria Books in Jackson.
Review of Born of Conviction
Posted on April 25, 2016 by PLT Staff
Born of Conviction: White Methodists and Mississippi's Closed Society, Joseph T. ReiffThe Alternative Witness of “the Twenty-Eight” to 1960’s Segregation
The Southern white church of the civil rights era is remembered for its intense resistance to change. Yet twenty-eight white Methodist pastors published a statement entitled “Born of Conviction” advocating an alternative witness to the segregationist party line and causing a serious rift in the public unanimity of Mississippi white resistance. Joseph T. Reiff’s Born of Conviction tells their story, examining their theologies and personal convictions, experiences before, during, and after the publication, and overall impact on the racial climate in Mississippi’s closed society.
In his review of Born of Conviction, Colin B. Chapell of the University of Memphis writes:
“This narrative moves effortlessly between an individual and institutional focus, a great strength of the book. Readers will walk away understanding the issues facing the Methodist Church in the 1960s, while simultaneously seeing how individuals fit into that larger picture. There are occasional moments when individual biographies of pastors blur the larger story, and extended vignettes may distract some readers. However, in detailing the lives of so many individuals, Reiff presents a balanced picture of the power of a principled, faith-based stand…
Born of Conviction is a nuanced, mature study that takes the faith stances of both progressives and segregationists seriously.”
For more information on Reiff’s book, click here. To read Chapell’s full review, click here.
Fellow travelers are scholars, activists, and practitioners that embody the ideals and commitments of the Project on Lived Theology. We admire their work and are grateful to be walking alongside them in the development and dissemination of Lived Theology.
Colin B. Chapell
Colin B. Chapell is an Instructor in History at the University of Memphis.
Colin B. Chapell, "Review: Born of Conviction," Journal of Southern Religion (18) (2016): jsreligion.org/vol18/chapell.
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Reiff, Joseph T. Born of Conviction: White Methodists and Mississippi’s Closed Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. xxi + 384 pp. ISBN 978-0-19-024681-5.
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In Born of Conviction, Joseph Reiff provides an in-depth look at the conflicted convictions of Mississippi’s white Methodists during the Civil Rights era. Rather than offering an optimistic view of faith’s power to provide courage and succor or a dystopian vision of the use of theology to retain unjust structures, Reiff writes a nuanced history in which the clergy and laity, conservatives and progressives, individual pastors and ecclesiastical structures ground their thoughts and actions in theological convictions. In Born of Conviction, students and scholars will not find simplistic formulations, but a complex study about the importance of religious belief.
Divided into four parts, Reiff organizes his work in general chronological order and begins by outlining the general structures of both Mississippi and Mississippi Methodism in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The first part of the book also introduces many of the men who would eventually sign the “Born of Conviction” statement. That manifesto outlined the beliefs that Methodist preachers needed freedom to voice their convictions and that the church should welcome people of all races. Moreover, the statement went on to support an integrated public school system while affirming opposition to communism. By presenting the background of many “Born of Conviction” signers, Reiff demonstrates how many individuals, perhaps unwittingly, had profound influences on future pastors, leading them to take a stand for racial justice in Mississippi’s closed society.
Part II looks specifically at the months surrounding the release of the “Born of Conviction” statement itself. Along with an account of the statement’s writing, Reiff turns to the immediate response both from congregations and communities throughout Mississippi. Beginning in this portion, Reiff confronts the “spoke out, forced out” narrative head on, demonstrating that, while a majority of the signatories did eventually leave Mississippi, few were truly forced out. However, this carefully made argument never minimizes the pastors’ real sense of isolation and feeling that their communities had rejected them.
The chapters in Part III of Born of Conviction follow individual pastors in the decades following the 1963 release of the “Born of Conviction” statement. Here, Reiff continues to confront the “spoke out, forced out” narrative. In addition, he follows the career trajectory of ministers who left Mississippi, while also exploring the lives and ministries of those few who stayed. Reiff makes clear that, while those who left often experienced lower levels of stress in the immediate aftermath of the “Born of Conviction” statement, those who stayed in Mississippi generally had deeply fulfilling ministerial careers as well.
The final part of the book examines the memory and legacy of the “Born of Conviction” statement within both Mississippi Methodism and the United Methodist Church generally. Here Reiff explores the resentments of some signatories who stayed and felt that those who left had abandoned them for greener pastures. Rather than focusing on this aspect of the story, however, Born of Conviction ends by recognizing that speaking truth to power, standing for justice, and fighting against oppression are continuing battles.
This narrative moves effortlessly between an individual and institutional focus, a great strength of the book. Readers will walk away understanding the issues facing the Methodist Church in the 1960s, while simultaneously seeing how individuals fit into that larger picture. There are occasional moments when individual biographies of pastors blur the larger story, and extended vignettes may distract some readers. However, in detailing the lives of so many individuals, Reiff presents a balanced picture of the power of a principled, faith-based stand.
While scholars such as David Chappell and Charles Marsh have emphasized the power of prophetic faith, more recent additions to the conversation from Carolyn Renée Dupont and Stephen Haynes demonstrate how faith was used as a tool for segregationists. Reiff balances this conversation by showing how both segregationists and racial progressives used faith as a starting point in Mississippi. In this complex and nuanced history, scholars and graduate students will also find that Reiff brings the story up to date by including the United Methodist Church’s struggle over same-sex marriage, relating how some of the same “Born of Conviction” pastors have responded to those controversies.
Born of Conviction is a nuanced, mature study that takes the faith stances of both progressives and segregationists seriously. While undergraduates may get lost in some of the individual stories, graduate students and scholars of religion, southern culture, and the Civil Rights Movement will appreciate Joseph Reiff’s study.
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© 2016 Journal of Southern Religion. ISSN 1094-5253.
LaReeca Rucker has been a journalist for more than 20 years. She spent a decade as a features writer and multimedia journalist with The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, MS.
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http://www.lareecarucker.com/pages/bornofconviction2.htm
'Born of conviction' statement 'an atomic bomb'
Methodist ministers fought racism in the '60s
By LaReeca Rucker
The Clarion-Ledger
As a student at Millsaps in the 1970s, Joseph T. Reiff found his heroes in a group of ministers who forged "a crack in the armor of the closed society" that existed in Mississippi in the 1960s.
In the fall of 1962, James Meredith had become the first black student at the University of Mississippi. The event sparked riots on campus that left two dead, 48 soldiers injured and 28 U.S. marshals wounded by gunfire.
Another 28 people would face injury the following January when they united to sign a document opposing discrimination, communism and the closing of public schools to establish private academies using state funds. The white Southern Methodist Conference signed the "Born of Conviction" statement, which was published in The Methodist Advocate.
"I used the statement in some classes to talk about Christian ethical dilemmas, particularly related to race," said Reiff, who was a 10th-grader at Murrah High when schools desegregated and is now an associate professor of religion at Emory & Henry College in Virginia. He is writing a book about the Born of Conviction signers, 17 of whom are still living.
"To put it mildly, all hell broke loose," said Inman Moore, pastor of Leggett Memorial Methodist Church in Biloxi and founding member of the Mississippi Council on Human Relations, remembering when he signed the statement. "It was like an atomic bomb in Mississippi. Our statement was a very moving document. It moved most of us right out of the state."
Moore said within six months of the document's publication, 20 of the 28 signers had left Mississippi for Florida, Indiana, New Jersey, Iowa, Texas, Arizona, Colorado and Washington. Thirteen went to California.
"Because there were so many of us coming at one time, California Methodists dubbed us 'The Mississippi Mafia,'" he said.
Jerry Trigg was pastor of Caswell Springs Methodist Church in Pascagoula when he helped write the statement.
"There were clergy throughout the state who were having tires slashed and crosses burned," said Trigg, who learned that the Alabama Ku Klux Klan planned to kill him and dump his body in a river. They had been infiltrated by the FBI, who informed the town sheriff - Trigg's good friend and a church member. Community members took turns sitting on Trigg's porch to make sure he was safe.
Trigg went on to lead the 4,000-member First Methodist Church of Colorado Springs, the third-largest church in the West.
The experience in Mississippi, he said, taught him "certain challenges are very difficult, but it by no means diminishes their importance. The key thing is to try to understand what God desires and act upon it no matter how tough it is."
Summer Walters was 27 and working at Jefferson Street Methodist Church in downtown Natchez when he signed the statement.
After it was published in the The Methodist Advocate, Walters received a call from city leaders asking him to meet them. They forced him out of town, but heluckily landed a job in Indiana.
"That was like having a fresh supply of oxygen when you think you are choking to death," he said. "It was just really a gift from God. We had a place to live, a parsonage, a guaranteed minimum salary and a chance to start a new ministry - out of Mississippi."
Walters worked for various Indiana churches over the years.
"Profound systematic change doesn't happen dramatically without revolution," Walters said. "If you don't do what you think is the right thing, what is your life about?"
Maxie Dunnam grew up in rural Perry County and helped found Trinity Methodist Church in Gulfport, but he was forced to leave after signing the statement. The journey took him to California, then back down South, where he became the world editor of The Upper Room, a Methodist devotional. He also served as president of the Kentucky- and Florida-based campuses of Ausbury Theological Seminary, and the Florida Dunnam campus in Orlando bears his name.
Dunnam never regretted signing the statement but said he has wondered what might have happened if he'd stayed.
"I doubt my path would have been the same at all, and you have to rest in the fact that God uses us whether we've made a mistake or not in terms of staying or leaving," he said.
"I doubt that I would have been exposed to the world and had a world ministry if I had stayed there simply because of the nature of the church in that particular time in history. I think the biggest thing I learned is the Gospel is always counter-cultural. It does not affirm the status quo."
Unlike these ministers, Denson Napier, who was working in Perry County at Richton Methodist Church when he signed the statement, said he never faced negative repercussions. He received community support.
"If you have people who are committing themselves to the Christian way of living and to truth, they are making sure their power is used to be helpful not hurtful," he said.
But Joe Way, who was 29 and working at a Meridian church when he signed the statement, was forced out of the Methodist conference.
"Once I realized there was no way in the world I was going to get a church in Mississippi, I decided to become an Air Force chaplain," he said.
Way served 23 years in the military before returning to Mississippi to become a pastor near Pascagoula.
"It was just something that had to be done because of what I believed," he said, recalling the statement.
Reiff said there were many things that were much more pivotal than the Born of Conviction statement in the history of the Civil Rights Movement, but it was a notable step.
"I think a lot of white Mississippians could fairly easily dismiss the Civil Rights Movement folks as outside agitators or crazy," he said, "but it was much less easy to dismiss ministers of the white Methodist churches who had grown up in Mississippi, who were leaders of their communities."
What is the legacy of the 28 and the Born of Conviction statement today?
"I think it teaches that people need to speak their convictions," Reiff said, "particularly in situations where there is injustice, and the injustice seems to be supported by the majority of people."
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One Mississippi, Two Mississippi: Methodists, Murder, and the Struggle for Racial Justice in Neshoba County. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. xii + 298 pp. $ 29.95.
Joseph T. Reiff, Born of Conviction: White Methodists and Mississippi’s Closed Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. xxi + 384 pp. $ 35.00.
With these two very fine volumes, Oxford University Press (OUP) brings its array of Methodistica to over twenty. Including readers on Susanna, John, and Charles Wesley, OUP seems to have challenged (or displaced?) Abing don Press (UMPH) as the purveyor of serious historical scholarship on our tradition’s various religious endeavors. Hopefully, Methodists of all stripes will appreciate OUP’s efforts and turn there regularly. (Disclaimer: OUP has published my latest book.)
George and Reiff’s volumes should be required reading for United Meth odists with serious leadership roles (lay, clergy, district, episcopal), espe cially in the SEJ and SCJ. Reiff focuses on the January, 1963, signing by twenty-eight Mississippi pastors of a call to their then all-white conference colleagues and members to live into the denomination’s “Social Creed” commitment “that God is Father of all people and races.” George takes us back to 1964 to the murders of Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney; to the related burning of Mt. Zion of Longdale; and to dra matic, often horrific roles played by, in and around that MEC Black church. While centered, as titles also indicate, on Mississippi, both probe Meth odist racial discord, indeed virulent racism, nationally and over the denomi nation’s full history. Both, as well, dwell on two epochal years in American race relations—1963 and 1964—and on Methodist dramatic parts therein. And they bring the sagas of pastors and community into the twenty-first century.
Elaborate endnotes and textual allusions show each author to have en gaged a huge array of scholarship. Further, Reiff and George invested in credible effort and energy in oral history (interviews and recorded material). They accordingly draw very current—recent, timely, telling—insights, per spectives and judgments into their narratives and do so in quite adroit fash ion. Both invite United Methodists into remembering and/or seeing afresh the tragic and pervasive denominational incorporation of racist/segregation ist/color-coded practices, attitudes and principle into policy and structure. We revisit the church jurisdictioned and so segregated constitutionally and nationally in 1939 into white and black. And we confront the incredibly powerful prejudicial attitudes and behavior that Methodists had sadly regularized. Graphics, centered in George’s volume and spread in Reiff’s, invite the reader into “living” within the color-divided church and into the well-staged campaigns to shatter it. (I should perhaps add at this point that I write with obvious biases, as one who in 1964 after first year in seminary served in a Black, Klan-threatened Presbyterian congregation in North Carolina; was that summer also ordained deacon into the still white North Carolina Con ference; and the following year co-led the cross-racial national seminarian placement initiative, the Student Interracial Ministry.)
If the two books share in attending to Mississippi’s racial dramas, they differ greatly as well. Most obviously and as noted already, George brings the Black MEC congregation, Mt. Zion, into view, treating it from its 1870s founding to her twenty-first century conversations with members, and portraying the denomination and nation through the Mt. Zion lens. In Parts One and Three, she focuses on Mt. Zion. Part Two covers Methodism and race generally and historically, the Freedom Summer, and its diverse race-related events. From archival research and interviews, she invites readers to experience the murders of Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney and the attendant literal and juridical cover-up as Mt. Zion’s members recall such. So George provides a compelling model for denominational history, seeing through the local to national and from a pivotal event to the whole story.
From the part to the whole, Reiff takes us as well. However, he attends to the twenty-eight mostly young Mississippi pastors who signed the 1963 “Born of Conviction” statement. Covering their individual spiritual journeys (and often their spouses as well), he conveys us to the highly controversial signing, through congregational and conference responses, and to the decisions that led twenty to head out of Mississippi. A number of the latter went on to prominent denominational leadership roles, among them Max ie Dunnam and James Waits. Treating their various subsequent positions, including heading Asbury and Candler, Reiff provides similar biographical narratives for each of the signers. He groups those who quit Mississippi and those who stayed, treating some of the signers in those chapters. But he also spreads individual stories throughout book, thereby making the whole far more readable than if all the biographical treatment had been lodged together. To the biographies, though short, Reiff comes through incredible archival and oral history research as his endnotes indicate.
So as George views the whole through a congregation, Reiff sees the big picture through successive biographical frames. Through window or lens of a Black congregation, she views the denomination. He depicts the whole as a stage filled with white actors. George treats Mississippi Methodism without mentioning “Born of Conviction.” Reiff gives some attention to the Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney murders but only passingly. For George, the bête noire was the political and Methodist segregationist power broker, lay leader John Satterfield. Reiff gives him just passing attention. Instead, he disparages the appointment politics, especially regarding “Born of Conviction” signers, of Mississippi Methodist D. S. John Willard Leggett, Jr. Here we have two new models for denominational history. To invite emulation across American religious studies and to stimulate further history-writing experiments, as well as for their meticulous coverage of Mississippi politics, they should be read.
They differ in another perspectival way. George writes, as I judge it, as outsider, a non-Methodist exploring denominational complexities and anom alies in a fresh way. She has not made denominational studies or Method ism her “thing,” though her first book tiptoed in that direction (Segregated Sabbaths: Richard Allen and the Rise of Independent Black Churches, 1760-1840 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973). Reiff’s father, Lee, was not a signer of “Born of Conviction” but a colleague in the cause. Professor at Millsaps College, he receives but passing attention in the book. Son and author Joseph Reiff lived with and into the racial dramas which he retells. Currently at Emory & Henry, Reiff has Millsaps and Candler degrees and is ordained.
Their outsider/insider perspectives lead me to a suggestion. Readers not intimately familiar with nineteenth-century Methodist history and the array of its denominational expressions might best start with Reiff’s Introduction and first chapter. Some might find confusing the comparable section in George’s volume covering the extrusion of Blacks from the MECS, the creation of the CME and the migration of other former slaves into the MEC, AME and AMEZ. After that Reiff section, either volume can be incredibly instructive reading. Again, I would urge that both be read for the way in which—alongside one another—they exhibit just how different Methodist white and black worlds really were.
Russell E. Richey
William R. Cannon Distinguished Professor of Church History, Emeritus
Emeritus Dean of Candler School of Theology
Durham, North Carolina-