Will Campbell (Baptist minister) facts for kids

Will Davis Campbell (Amite County, Mississippi, July 18, 1924 – Nashville, Tennessee June 3, 2013) was a Baptist minister, speaker, and activist. He was a white Southerner who strongly supported African-American civil rights. Campbell was also a writer, famous for his book Brother to a Dragonfly, which was a finalist for a major book award in 1978.

Will Davis Campbell: A Champion for Civil Rights

Early Life and Journey

Will Campbell was born in Amite County, Mississippi, in 1924. His parents were a farmer and his wife. He said his family taught him to be accepting of different cultures. This was even though their church had Bibles with a symbol of the Ku Klux Klan, a group that was against racial equality. He became a minister at age 17 in his local Baptist church.

He went to Louisiana College and then joined the army during World War II. He worked as a medic, helping injured soldiers. After the war, he studied at Wake Forest College, Tulane University, and Yale Divinity School.

From 1952 to 1954, he was a pastor in Louisiana. But he spent most of his career in other roles. In 1954, he became the director of religious life at the University of Mississippi. He left this job in 1956 because he faced a lot of anger and even threats for supporting racial integration.

After that, he joined the National Council of Churches (NCC) as a field officer. He became deeply involved in the civil rights movement. In 1963, Campbell left the NCC to lead the Committee of Southern Churchmen (CSC). This group became his base for continuing his activism.

The CSC published a journal called Katallagete. This name comes from a Greek word in the Bible that means 'be reconciled'. The journal shared ideas about politics and social change through the lens of Christian faith. It was published from 1965 until the early 1990s.

By 2005, Campbell said the CSC was mostly just a name. He continued his work on his own, connecting with friends like singers Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, comedian Dick Gregory, and writer Studs Terkel.

Even though he remained a Baptist, Campbell held small church services at his home in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee for many years.

Will Campbell passed away on June 3, 2013, in Nashville. He was 88 years old and had suffered a stroke in 2011. He was survived by his wife of 67 years, Brenda Fisher, and their three children, Webb, Bonnie, and Penny.

Standing Up for What's Right

Helping the Little Rock Nine

In 1957, while working for the National Council of Churches, Campbell was part of two important civil rights events. He was one of only four people who went with the black students who were integrating the public schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. These students are known as the Little Rock Nine. He was also the only white person present when Martin Luther King Jr. started the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Some black leaders didn't want him there, but Bayard Rustin supported him.

Supporting Freedom Riders

In 1961, Campbell helped the "Freedom Riders." These brave people from groups like the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) rode buses together to challenge segregation on interstate travel. They faced violence from white mobs in Alabama, but Campbell helped them. In a 1964 interview, Campbell talked about many civil rights issues, including the death of civil rights leader Medgar Evers and the idea of using buses to integrate schools.

He urged Southern Christian churches to end their own segregation and fight against unfair treatment. He believed they should not stay silent. Campbell later moved away from organized religion, but he always remained a strong Christian.

A Unique Approach to Activism

Campbell once said he didn't see himself as a typical civil rights activist, even though many others did.

His strong beliefs meant he sometimes kept his distance from political groups. He believed that Christians should care about everyone, even those who were prejudiced. He famously said, "Mr. Jesus died for the bigots as well." These ideas sometimes caused disagreements between Campbell and other civil rights leaders. Campbell was even an "unofficial chaplain" to a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. He refused to cut white racists out of his life or see them as less than human. He even visited people in prison. In 1976, he noted that he started getting angry letters from people on the "left" side of politics, instead of just the "right."

In his book The Stem of Jesse, Campbell wrote about Sam Oni, the first black student to attend Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. He also wrote about the courage of Joseph Hendricks, who helped Mercer through the process of ending segregation. He also shared the story of Samaria Mitcham Bailey, a young African American woman, and how she dealt with racial challenges while studying at Mercer University.

Other Important Issues

Campbell also joined protests against the Vietnam War. He helped people who didn't want to fight in the war find safety in Canada. In the late 1970s, he spoke out against the death penalty, especially after meeting a person who was executed in Florida in 1979.

Like other thinkers he admired, Campbell didn't fully trust the government. He believed that people should create their own history. These views made Campbell's ideas different from many other religious activists.

His Books and Writings

Will Campbell wrote many books. Here are some of his main works:

• Race and the Renewal of the Church (1962)
• Up to Our Steeples in Politics (1970) (with James Y. Holloway)
• The Failure and the Hope: Essays of Southern Churchmen (1972) (edited with James Y. Holloway)
• ... and the criminals with him ..." Lk 23:33: A first-person book about prisons (1972)
• Brother to a Dragonfly (1977): This book is partly about his own life, partly a tribute to his brother, and partly a history of the Civil Rights Movement.
• The Glad River (1982): A novel.
• Cecelia's Sin (1983): A historical novel about early Baptists.
• The Lord's Prayer for Our Time (1983) (with Will McBride and Bonnie Campbell)
• Forty Acres and a Goat (1986): Another book about his life. (40 acres is about 16 hectares).
• The Convention: A Parable (1988): A story based on disagreements within the Southern Baptist Convention.
• Covenant: Faces, Voices, Places (1989) (with photographs by Al Clayton)
• Chester and Chun Ling (1989): A children's book.
• Providence (1992)
• The Stem of Jesse: The Costs of Community at a 1960's Southern School (1995): This book tells the story of racial integration at Mercer University.
• "Little Red Riding: The Babtist Red-headed Girl" (1996): A children's book.
• The Pear Tree That Bloomed in the Fall (1996): A children's book.
• And Also With You: Duncan Gray and the American Dilemma (1997): A book honoring Duncan M. Gray, one of Campbell's heroes.
• Bluebirds Always Come on Sunday (1997)
• Shugah and Doops (1997)
• Soul Among Lions: Musings of a Bootleg Preacher (1999)
• Robert G. Clark's Journey to the House (2003): A book about the first black state legislator in Mississippi since the Reconstruction era in 1967.
• "Writings on Reconciliation and Resistance" (2010)
• "Crashing the Idols: The Vocation of Will D. Campbell" (2010)
• "And the Criminals With Him: Essays in Honor of Will D. Campbell and the Reconciled" (2012) (Edited with Richard C. Goode).

See also

• Neo-orthodoxy