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Vineville Baptist Church

By Dacia Collins, Kimmy Graff, Drew Haynes, Emily White, and Dana Ziglar

Oral history with Mrs. Cris Williamson

The Civil Rights Movement symbolized the revolution of a certain people against oppression, the disregarding of their rights, and racial discrimination. Many people fought against this constant movement toward equality and freedom, such as the Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizen’s Council. However, as Dr. http://www.theprovidentgroupllc.com/images/vinevillebaptist2.jpgMartin Luther King stated in his Letter from Birmingham Jail, "the Negro's greatest stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to ‘order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.” Vineville Baptist Church played no active part in the Civil Rights Movement. Vineville resorted to keeping order within the church, rather than striving for order outside of the church. During the entire movement, Vineville Baptist Church played the part of the white moderate, even after accepting Sam Oni and his roommate Donald Baxter as members of their congregation. Vineville, like many of the white moderate churches in the South, watched the movement from an imaginary window, looking out for themselves, and thinking only on what they thought was right, rather than acting upon it.

The Southern Baptist Convention split into a separate denomination in 1845 when the northern abolitionists rejected the acceptance of a Georgia preacher who was a slaveholder (southern Baptist stained glass). The Southern Baptist Convention plays a big part in the Southern Baptist way of thinking. It was created for three main reasons. One important reason is because the Southerners believed that the Northern Baptists violated the constitution of the Baptist mission societies by their choice to refuse to appoint slave holders as missionaries. The Southerners also believed that Northern Baptists, because of their recent anti-slavery actions, ignored Baptist history. The Southern Baptists took it upon themselves to rekindle the history. The Southern Baptists also differed from the Northern Baptists in that they are more distrustful of ecumenical movements, they are reluctant to join any other Christian denomination for any reason, and they tend to favor closed Communion, rather than open communion (“Southern Baptists”). Because of what seemed to be major differences in the North and South, The Southern Baptists decided to form the Southern Baptist Convention to fulfill their missionary responsibility, calling anti-slavery actions, by northerners, “a kind of romish interdict upon us in the discharge of an imperative duty” (Wilson).

The Southern Baptist Convention influenced the white moderate view of Southern Baptist Churches. Many churches, focusing mainly on the Baptist churches, kept their distance from the troubles outside of the church walls. The Baptists believed that life outside of the church had nothing to do with them, and that they were doing their part by just keeping their distance. Many churches did not get involved with the movement because their congregants believed that segregation was accepted by the black community. The white community was surprised and shocked when the blacks started uprising. The white southerners strongly believed that the reason their “Negroes” were acting that way was because of their enemies: the communists, the NAACP, and the northern liberals. A Charlottesville resident, Sarah Patton Boyle stated: “I loved Negroes…and in my segregated way, respected and admired them…I believed that our relationship was complementary and mutually satisfying…When a Negro didn’t ‘keep his place’ I felt outraged” (Sokol).

The Civil Rights movement was more a disturbance to the white race than it was to the black race because it taught the white race how to put faith and works together to get something achieved. Velasquez explains that the Civil Rights Movement was a prime example of “proclaiming God’s Kingdom on earth and acting on it.” He also explains how evangelists were too occupied with their own salvation and making themselves look good in front of others that they did not notice or care about the starving and dying people right under their noses. (Velasquez).

The fight against racial discrimination was on the shoulders of the churches and religion. Some churches were firmly against blacks joining their congregation or even stepping foot in their church. Those pastors who made an attempt to integrate, without their congregation agreeing, were fired on the spot and possibly hunted down by the Ku Klux Klan. However, some churches were all for integration and accepting to anyone who came to their door with a mind to worship. There were also those churches, like Vineville, that were not strictly one or the other.  These churches, known as white moderate churches, were not solely against blacks joining their church; however, they were not all for accepting them into their church either. White moderate churches were usually under the impression that maybe blacks were people too, and maybe they had souls that needed saving, but they were not the ones who were going to do the saving.

While this was a typical stance to stay in “Good Graces” because it was the “right thing to do,” many of the churches were still frowning upon black people coming into their churches. The black people would come into the church and while they were allowed in the church, they did not get the normal “church like greeting” and did not have many people to talk to them, if any. Therefore, they sat on the sideline and watched the action from the middle.

Race relations has been one of the main problems with Southern Baptist preachers in the 1960’s because of the Southern Baptist heritage. The Southern Baptist “heritage” has caused Southern Baptist preachers to abandon the ‘Lordship’ of Christ. The issue of race sometimes divided the pastors and their congregations, especially when it came to mission trips to other countries and evangelism. Many of the preachers and pastors of the churches felt as if the missionaries were doing a great service, as did their congregations. The separating point of the pastors and the congregations was that if a few of the converts would come back from the trips to worship in the churches and go to school, the pastors did not really have a problem, while the congregations did.

Southern Baptists  played a big part in the Civil Rights Movement, helping desegregate schools, give blacks the right to vote and own housing, but when it came to the matter of desegregating churches, the Baptists turned their backs (“Southern Baptist Race Relations). Pastor Walter Moore, however, was different. Walter Moore pastored Vineville Baptist Church in the 1960’s. He was, according to his church members, a people person. Whatever Pastor Moore decided to do, he knew that he had the support of his congregation. The members of his church followed him because he was an excellent leader and contributed much more to Vineville than many of the other pastors. His members trusted him with their lives and believed that “if there was ever a saint on earth, it would have to be Pastor Walter Moore.”

Pastor Walter Moore had a heart for integrating the church. As a missionary in Cuba, he preached the word of God to many different races. Because he was used to diversity, he felt burdened that he only preached to an all white-congregation in America. Pastor Moore did not believe that only one race should have the opportunity to worship God and should not worship him separately. So Pastor Moore became chairman of a special committee that recommended the admission of Sam Oni and his roommate, Donald Baxter, to become members of Vineville Baptist Church. Many people did not agree to Pastor Moore inviting them or with the possibility of admitting a black into the church, yet no one decided to go against him publically.

The Sunday the two men decided to become members of Vineville, they went through the usual acceptance routine, but Pastor Moore separated the future new members into two groups, whites in one group and Sam Oni and his roommate in another. Pastor Moore did the ceremonial routine and asked the congregation if they accepted the white visitors as members of the congregation, as expected, they all said yes. Then, he did something different. He, then, brought Sam Oni to the front and told the congregation that he kept Sam Oni on the side because he was special. Many of the members of Vineville knew that Sam Oni was going to be there on that special http://faculty.mercer.edu/davis_da/fys102/museum_clip_image002.gifSunday, however, they did not know that he was possibly going to join the church. Pastor Moore then presented Sam Oni to the congregation and asked them if they accepted Sam as a member. Some members remember the answer being instant, and others remember the answer being revealed the following Sunday. Whenever it was done, the decision to accept Sam Oni and his roommate was completed and the majority of the congregated voted “yes.”

When the time came to make a decision of whether or not to allow Sam Oni into their church, they made the decision to make a difference, set an example, and accept him despite his skin color. The congregation knew that it was time for a change. They decided to put their faith in their pastor’s decision to become the first church in Georgia to support integration. Vineville, unlike most white moderate churches at the time, appeared to be more willing to accept things out of the ordinary and accept change.  Some say that the only reason they allowed Sam Oni to join the church was because of Vineville’s persuasive pastor at the time.  However, it was not long after his acceptance that Sam Oni decided to withdraw his membership from Vineville Baptist Church. From the Sunday he joined until the Sunday he left, the tension he felt within that church was so great it became unbearable (“Sam Oni”).

The fact that the church allowed Sam Oni to join was a huge turning point in the history of the Civil Rights Movement, Vineville, and the life of Sam Oni.  Allowing Sam to be a part of the church was a stepping-stone for more churches to further advances in their racial decisions.  Once one church shattered the racial division, more churches followed their lead.  Vineville became an icon for other churches and for people in the movement all around Georgia. 

Shortly after Sam Oni came to Vineville Baptist, the church split.  Half of the church, the younger half, went to a new location and called themselves Vineville North Baptist Church, which is now called North Way Church.  The other half of the church, stayed at the same location in the same church.  There are many reasons for the split.  One reason is that the congregation was simply getting too large, so they decided to create another church to handle the overflow of people. The original idea to the split was to create “Expansion” which at the time was the church’s logo. When it was first proposed the leaders of the church thought it would be a good idea because the church was striving to expand its walls further into the community. They believed that the church would split equally and both of the churches would be successful. However, they did not foresee the division between the generations coming. Other possible reasons for the split could be that the younger generation wanted a contemporary service while the older members desired to keep their old traditional service.  The stubborn long-time members would not relent for fear that having a contemporary service would change the nature of the church. Therefore, the young newer members broke off from the mother church and started their own church.

 Even after blacks and whites were able to attend the same church, sit in the same congregation, and listen to the same pastor, racism in Southern religion was still present. Pastor John Bachman of St. John’s Church, in Charleston South Carolina, for example, pastored one hundred and ninety-five African American members. There were nine hundred and sixty-nine Lutherans in South Carolina, yet South Carolina refused to change its policy on race. The law was as follows: blacks and whites could continue to be members of the same congregation, however, blacks would have no say in determining congregational policy, and they would sit in pews assigned to them, signifying their inferiority (Smith).

Even though it seems that racism has fled from churches of the twenty-first century, it has not.  Not only is racism still prevalent in the Baptist community, but in other denominations of churches.  As far as religious practice is concerned, the races just prefer to stay separate. The black churches have a much different and free way of worshiping. For example, a black Baptist church plays much on the Holy Spirit and letting God make the order of the service. Vineville Baptist adopted an African American church, but the members of the black church, as one church member observed, worried that the white worship service was too quiet. The cultural difference in worship continues to act as a racial division.

After the fight against slavery, one would think that blacks in today’s society would not even think to join the Baptist religion, since all it seemed to do was fight against them. However, blacks in the southern Baptist convention are trying to look passed the issue that split Baptists in the past almost 200 years ago (USA Today).  The Southern Baptist Convention now has over sixteen million members who worship in over forty two thousand churches all over the United States. From the perspective of a white man walking into Vineville Baptist, I felt like I was walking into an ordinary Southern Baptist church. The members of the church came up before, during, and after the service just to say hello and introduce themselves. They made me feel very welcomed. I wondered if I was so warmly welcomed because I was a white male instead of a black male. I seriously doubt that Sam Oni received such a warm welcome from the same members like I did. When I looked at Vinevilles’ congregation I only saw two black families. I wondered if even in today’s world, if I am more accepted than my group members because I am white and a male. Growing up, we are told that racism does not exist anymore, but as we get older we have to ask ourselves more and more.

The movement impacted churches in the South from racist to the extreme liberal. The most common type was the white moderate church. These were the churches during the Civil Rights Movement that were not completely for the integration of churches, but they did not speak out against it either. Their congregation was made up of people that saw the racist acts going on around them as well as the demonstrations by the African Americans, and they did not condone or reject them. A perfect example of the white moderate church is Vineville Baptist. The church was made up of middle-class whites, who did not want any attention to come to them who worried that if the church took a stance, then they would be ridiculed by others. That was the belief of the people in the church. However, Sam Oni changed the thinking of almost everyone in the congregation. When Oni went into Vineville Baptist and walked to the front of the church to become a member, he took a big step in the Civil Rights Movement in Macon. It was a brave action for Oni to do and then an equally brave reaction for the church to accept Oni into their congregation and church as a member.         

White moderates played a large part in the Civil Rights Movement, perhaps without even comprehending the significance of their role.  The white moderate church became a substantial factor in the entire movement. In the beginning, the white moderate churches tried to play the “safe route” of the entire movement and not become involved. They did not want to do anything too radical that would hurt themselves or their family members, but they were not fully against the rights of blacks in their community.  All of the churches eventually had to take a side, and the majority of them went pro-integration, even if that meant sacrificing some of their members who were not yet ready for the integration process to begin. It took a few churches, such as Vineville Baptist, to integrate for the rest of the churches to realize that they could also integrate.

A few brave pastors and churches took a stance after being dormant and letting the movement pass by them. Integrating a church could cause a pastor to lose his job, not be able to provide for his family, and also be hunted down by the KKK.  Pastor Moore’s church was the first Southern Baptist Church in the state of Georgia to integrate. It was because of Moore’s willingness to look past one’s skin color and look at their spiritual wellbeing that made him different from most pastors in the South.  When he had the opportunity to admit Sam Oni into the church, Reverend Moore and his congregation took a risk. Even though Sam did not stay long at Vineville Baptist he, along with the congregation, started the process of religious integration in Georgia.

Works Cited