Dear Sisters and Brothers,

Three years after the United States Supreme Court declares an end to racial segregation in the public schools of the United States "with all deliberate speed," the attention of the world is focused on Little Rock, Arkansas, where Governor Orval Faubus is leading white resistance to an order to desegregate Central High School. Less than 50 miles away--out of sight of television cameras, beyond the reach of wire-service reporters--members of the Churches of Christ are confronting their consciences in the matter of opportunity for black students who might seek a "Christian" education.

In that kairos of 1957 Bill Floyd is not quite 22 years old--and, like T. H. White's Guenever, he has "only six senses." It is difficult to imagine him. He is a gifted young person, training for the ministry, clearly marked for distinction among his peers. Now, in his position as the elected president of the student body at Harding College, he is confronted by students who demand an end to racial discrimination in that institution. In consultation with students and faculty, young Floyd seizes the initiative and composes a statement that declares the readiness of the Harding community to accept "all academically and morally qualified applicants." Seven years afterward, when he comes to write about his "Christian" education, Bill Floyd has come to understand this act and its consequences as the climax of a journey quite different from the one he had planned.

The other principal actor in this drama is of course the magisterial autocrat George Stuart Benson, who at this time regulates every aspect of life at Harding College as if it were his personal possession. He is a former missionary to China and an avid supporter of African missions; he is also a leading ideologue of American political "conservatism" and a thoroughgoing racist. He is a complicated individual, who deserves careful, critical analysis. He stands here against the Zeitgeist, seeking to roll back the tide of history. He will later find his actions and utterances difficult to explain. Like Governor Faubus, he is a master politician who has failed to read the signs of the times and move with them.

This is a crisis of conscience, a moral confrontation; that is how the struggle will proceed in the Churches of Christ. There are no black students massed at the gates, demanding admission. There are no angry mobs, no federal troops. The struggle is almost an abstraction; almost, but not quite. The pain is all too terribly real.

There is yet one more figure in the shadows of this scene who must be brought into the light. In that autumn of 1957 Robert Rex Meyers has just returned to Harding College from years of doctoral study in Saint Louis. We cannot doubt that he is one of the authors of the statement that the Harding community signs. Baptized at 11 in response to the preaching of the young R. N. Hogan, Robert Meyers had almost immediately begun preparing himself to preach "sound doctrine" among Churches of Christ. Now, in 1957, experience has made him also a person quite different from the one he intended to be. By 1960 George Benson will have dismissed him from Harding College. By 1966 he will assemble, edit, and publish a remarkable collection of essays. This text is an excerpt from one of them. It is, as they all are, a confession of faith and a confession of sin--the sin of the Churches of Christ.

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Ministers in the Churches of Christ find it generally wise to avoid involvements with the great crucial issues of their world. Nationalism, integration, population control, the sexual revolution, war, euthanasia--these and a host of other pressing problems must be ignored lest the congregation brand them as "unsound." Yet these are the very problems which today's college student debates vigorously. If his church hides its head from them, he will simply conclude that the church is an embalmed society for the preservation of peace and comfort.

One of these problem areas, that of racial relationships, is especially vital for Christianity. We live in a world where three out of four people are non-white. No amount of money, prayers, or missionaries will counteract the undermining influence of our segregated churches. In the face of our moral cowardice, god may be passing us by to raise up others more willing to fulfill his redemptive purposes. Many young men and women seem to sense this today and they do not intend to be found wanting. As Dante might have put it: "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in time of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality."

The Church of Christ has placed itself on the sideline of the greatest moral struggle of our times. Without exception, every one of our southern Christian colleges have waited until it was safe before they integrated. And when they finally integrated (mildly), they blew trumpets and waved flags and sent articles [165] to newspapers announcing their courage and humanitarianism! All this, to their everlasting shame, after they had worked for years to stave off integration as long as possible.

One of our top college presidents told me in private conference that Negroes really want to attend school "with their own people," and that he had personally contributed to their financial support elsewhere. But, he admonished me, "many Negroes have venereal disease," and we must protect our present students. God did not intend integration, he said, and it was not expedient, anyway, at present because the school might lose monetary support and not be able to teach "Christian principles" to as many students." Yet when it finally was "safe" to integrate, in fact imperative lest they be exposed in the newspapers, this president publicized the school's action as an act of Christian witness! One knows little about today's intelligent youngsters if he thinks they are blind to such hypocrisy or willing to partake of it.

My father ministered to an Alabama congregation during the Birmingham riots. He preached on segregation, his text being: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." He was called a "son of a bitch" and a "devil" from the audience while he was delivering the sermon. When the elders defended his right to preach what he believed, the elders were dismissed by the men of the congregation and my father was fired. Why have more Alabama Church of Christ ministers not been fired? Where is the church of our group that is in danger of being burned because of its stand for decency?

In another of our "Christian" colleges, located where all state colleges have been integrated for years and in a city in which other private, church-related schools have been integrated for years, segregation has until very recently been an iron-clad policy. At this Church of Christ school, Negroes were excluded from [166] tournament events that involved other schools for on-campus participation. And when faculty members were hired it was made a specific condition of employment that they must refrain from making any public statements (even in the capacity of private citizen) favoring integration. This will shock readers who believe in responsible freedom in integrity for faculty members, but it is a fact easily verifiable from men who formerly taught in this college and are now in respected positions in other colleges and universities.

When I was serving as president of the student body at Harding College, some students asked me to help them circulate a petition demanding an end to the de facto policy of racial segregation at the school. I suggested that we were not in a position to make demands and asked for time to draw up a statement of attitude that would indicate clearly the feelings of students and faculty. With the advice and assistance of some faculty members, the statement was readied. Before any signatures were obtained, the administration was told of the contents of the statement and what was about to occur. The administration immediately requested that the action not take place. I met that evening with the student council and told them of the administration order. They voted to go ahead with circulation of the statement. The administration announced in chapel the following day that it did not favor the statement's circulation. When an overwhelming majority of people at the college signed the statement, we sent it to each member of the Board of Harding College, along with the following letter:

"November 10, 1957. Attention members of the board of Harding College: The following is a statement that was circulated on the Harding College campus: To the administration and Board of Trustees of Harding College:

"A number of members of the Harding community are deeply concerned about the problem of racial dis- [167] crimination. Believing that it is wrong for Christians to make among people distinctions which God has not made, they sincerely desire that Harding College make clear to the world that she firmly believes in the principles of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. To that end, the undersigned individuals wish to state that they are ready to accept as members of the Harding community all academically and morally qualified applicants, without regard to arbitrary distinctions such as color or social level; that they will treat such individuals with the consideration and dignity appropriate to human beings created in the image of God; and that they will at all times face quietly, calmly, patiently, and sympathetically any social pressures intensified by this action.

"Furthermore, the undersigned individuals wish it clearly understood that this statement of attitude is by no means intended as an attempt to precipitate action by the Administration or Board of Trustees of Harding College, but that it is instead intended entirely as an expression of the internal readiness of the Harding community to end discrimination, such expression being tendered as one factor for the consideration of the Administration and the Board of Trustees when a re-evaluation of the admission policies of Harding College is undertaken."

"The copies bearing the signatures of those supporting this concept have been sent to the Chairman of the Board and to the Administration of the College requesting consideration of this problem at the next Board meeting.

"Forty-nine faculty members signed, forty-two staff members and eight executive directors. There is a total of nine hundred and forty-six signatures affixed to the statement. There are nine hundred eighty-six regularly enrolled students in the college.

"We appreciate your continued individual thought [168] and expression given to this problem, which is of great concern to us.

"Sincerely, Bill Floyd, President, Student Body."

In later sessions with the administration I learned a great deal about the power structure of the Church of Christ. The president told students in chapel that the action was improper and that the signatures were not an accurate expression of student feeling. I never understood how he determined this, when such a vast majority signed. His explanation was that "they didn't understand what they were signing." Any reader who can believe this does not seem to me to fathom the mind of today's college student. In the same address, our president explained to us that God made some blue birds and some black birds and that they were not intended to mix, that Negroes in America have more cars than the people in Russia, and that we would lose students and financial support if we were to integrate. I was told in private by one administrator that I had betrayed my trust as student body president, that no employer would ever hire me, that when one works for an institution he should accept all its thinking and keep silent about contrary beliefs, and that if I wanted to crusade for integration I should go where everyone believes in it. Another administrative official told me that the student government should be an agency to indoctrinate the students with the ideas of the administration.

During this time the state of Arkansas was much in the national news because of its racial problems. The Arkansas Gazette, never hesitant to print uncomplimentary stories about Harding College, would have been more than willing to print the story of the student statement and its reception by the administration. Time magazine, I feel sure, would have printed the story of a small southern college whose faculty, staff, and students had voted overwhelmingly to end [169] segregation. But it seemed to me that sending the story to these media would not be the proper response, so it was not done.

So ended the 1957 attempt at Harding to end discrimination. When it was safer, several years later after it had become "the thing to do" around the nation, Harding at last made a mild, token integration and promptly released stories to news media acclaiming its action.

Two years later, sitting in his lectures on the Pentateuch in one of the green opera seats of the "small auditorium" of the Administration building at Harding College, i heard George Stuart Benson say that "the nigra race, young people, is under the curse of Ham." i was told again and again how "Dr." Benson had stood in chapel two years earlier, after Bill Floyd had delivered to him the statement of the Harding community. i can see him now, erect and immaculate, as in Bob Silvey's wonderful poem,

white hair precise white hands concise black suit so nice not grayed.

Coming to his English class after that chapel service, Robert Meyers stood at the window and looked toward the Administration Building. Finally he turned to his own lectern, shook his head, and murmured softly, "Did he really say that?" Indeed he had.

The redbirds, the bluebirds, the blackbirds, they don't mix and mingle together, young people!

In front of the Administration building at Harding College there was a lily pond, and in the center of the lily pond there was a birdbath. And that night, according to legend, that great saint Ralph Odom waded out into the center of the pond and hung a sign on the birdbath. That sign said all that need be said; it read

WHITE ONLY

May God have mercy.

dhaymes, his mark +