GRANVILLE SYDNOR
Presbyterian Historical Society of the Southwest
James S. Currie, Executive Secretary
In 1961 Dr. Ernest Trice Thompson, a native of Texarkana, Texas and professor of church history at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, delivered two lectures at the request of the student council “on the social attitudes of the Presbyterian Church in the South.” Those lectures were subsequently published in a pamphlet under the title “The Spirituality of the Church: A Distinctive Doctrine of the Presbyterian Church in the United States.”
After covering the history of slavery and race relations in the United States, Thompson maintains that the South’s loss in the Civil War, the abolition of slavery, and the putative liberalism of the Northern Presbyterian Church led to what was called the “spirituality of the church,” that is, the church had no business speaking out on social issues, claiming that the church’s primary, if not sole, mission “was limited to evangelism and to the fostering of an individual and family morality” (p. 40). However, Thompson also notes that “(t)he Southern Presbyterian Church, so far as I am aware, is the only church at workin the South which is making a limited, yet partially successful attempt at integration” (p. 36).
This attitude of limiting the mission of the church seems to begin to have changed, according to Thompson, after 1935 when serious conversations with the northern church began. Still, there were – and are – many who agree with this doctrine, a stance that has led to various divisions within the Presbyterian Church in recent years (PCA, EPCA, ECO) as well as some who have left the Presbyterian denomination altogether.
Over the years there have been many Presbyterians who have found themselves in positions and places in which they have felt compelled by the gospel to speak out in protest over unjust actions by the powers that be. Some (such as the Central High School integration crisis in 1957) have been covered in this column.
While there are many examples of such a witness, today’s example is Granville Sydnor, a native of Martinsburg, West Virginia and a graduate of Wofford College and Union Theological Seminary in Richmond. His first call out of seminary was to First Presbyterian Church in Ferriday, Louisiana, home town of newsman Howard K. Smith, musicians Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley, and televangelist Jimmy Swaggart. Sydnor served that church and that community for four years (1964-68), a time of serious racial tension around the United States, but particularly so in the Deep South.
In his own account of his pastorate in Ferriday Sydnor writes of the influence his seminary professors, E. T. Thompson and Bill Oglesby, had on him. “I came to view Jesus’ death as God’s confrontation to humanity that called for reconciliation. Christ’s resurrection I viewed as an affirmation that God would forgive and that reconciliation and community were the prime features of the kingdom of God. Dr. Thompson provided the example of how to put this into action…. After three years of seminary, I urgently wanted a pastorate where reconciliation and God’s grace were needed. Ferriday, Louisiana needed that and much more” (p. 55 in “When Civil Rights and Social Action Become Very Personal” in Doing Justice, Loving Kindness, and Walking Humbly: The Witness of Some Southern Presbyterian Pastors for the Cause of Racial Harmony in the 1950s and 1960s).
With his wife, Jackie, and their four children they moved into the manse in Ferriday in May of 1964. A supporter of integration, Sydnor soon discovered that the deputy sheriff in town was one of the leaders of the local Ku Klux Klan. In addition, the Mafia had an active presence in the area. Not long after Sydnor arrived, the shoe shop in town that was owned by Frank Morris, a local Black businessman, was burned to the ground with Morris inside (Morris died four days later), Sydnor and the pastor of the local Methodist church began receiving warnings and death threats. Other Black citizens mysteriously disappeared.
A new editor at the local newspaper happened to be a Presbyterian. He and Sydnor became good friends. Although the FBI maintained a presence in Ferriday, Sydnor was fingered by the KKK as someone to be followed and threatened. He supported the Black community in its boycott of white businesses in 1966. Threats followed Sydnor and his family throughout his four years in Ferriday.
As they were leaving town for a new call in northern Louisiana, the newspaper editor, Sam Hanna, took Sydnor aside and said, “Well, Preacher, there are a number of people who think you can walk on water and almost an equal number who think you ought to be under water. I’m going to miss you. Who is going to help me sell newspapers now?” (Pp. 79-80).
(Full disclosure: Many years later, after Sydnor had left the ministry, this writer had the privilege of serving as pastor to him and Jackie in Pasadena, Texas where they were members of First Presbyterian Church.)
Whether guided by Scripture, our Book of Confessions (like Barmen), or the example of others, there have been many Presbyterians (and others) who, like Granville Sydnor, stood up to government officials, local bullies, and institutional prejudices at great risk to themselves. In other countries one can look to Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Germany, Desmond Tutu and Alan Boesak in South Africa, Heino Falcke and Friedrich Schorlemmer in the former East Germany. May their tribe increase.
The mission of the Presbyterian Church is indeed evangelism, as the early proponents of “the spirituality of the church” argued. But proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ surely involves having a social conscience and speaking out, when necessary, calling for both justice and mercy. That same gospel compels me to confess my own prejudices and to see those whom I might criticize as my sisters and brothers in Christ. Discipleship is never easy.
The Presbyterian Historical Society of the Southwest exists to “stimulate and encourage interest in the collection, preservation, and presentation of the Presbyterian and Reformed heritage” in the Southwest. If you are not a participating member of the Society and would like to become one, the annual dues are $20 per individual and $25 per couple. Annual institutional and church membership dues are $100. Checks may be made out to PHSSW and sent to:
PHSSW – 5525 Traviston Ct., Austin, TX 78738.
