To T. Y. Rogers
Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Date: March 8, 1962
Location: Atlanta, Ga.?
Genre: Letter
Topic: Martin Luther King, Jr. - Career in Ministry
Details
Writing to his former assistant at Dexter, King shares his views regarding the formation of the Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC) as a rival to the National Baptist Convention (NBC).1 King expresses his reservations regarding the PNBC’s formation but notes its potential for “possibilities far exceeding any of our expectations.”
The Rev. T. Y. Rogers, Jr.
Galilee Baptist Church
457 Roxborough Avenue
Philadelphia 28, Pennsylvania
Dear T. Y.:
Let me apologize for being somewhat tardy in my reply to your letter of February 16. A trip out of the country and the accumulation of a huge volumn of mail account for the delay.2
I, too, am sorry that you could not make yourself available for the First Baptist Church in Montgomery. I had looked forward to having you as a new associate in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the struggle for freedom in the South. Let us hope that something else will open in the near future.3
It is difficult for me to properly advise you on the Progressive Baptist Convention, since I have not had an opportunity to attend any of its sessions. I must confess that I had hoped that a split would not take place.4 Also, I was taken aback a bit when I noticed the procedures used to call the meeting which led to the formation of the Progressive Baptist Convention. I felt that a small group of about twenty or twenty-five men should have gotten together and discussed all the pros and cons of organizing a new Convention and then if the concensus was for organizing, the meeting should have been jointly called by this particular group. But, as you know, it ended up that only one man called the meeting, namely, Rev. [L. Venchael] Booth.5 This greatly weakened the potential effectiveness of the new Convention.6 Whether it has now gotten over this initial blunder, I do not know.
On the other side of the ledger, I must say that I well understand the frustrations and the discontent that those who started the new Convention face. I am sure that most of the men in this Convention are motivated by a desire to see our denomination do something positive and meaningful for Kingdom building. So it may very well be that the Progressive Baptist Convention has possibilities far exceeding any of our expectations. Therefore, I would say that we should observe the developments of the new Convention and see which direction it will be taking. I plan to attend its next session as an observer, and also attend the other Convention for a day or so in order to keep contact with the brethren.7 This is not an attempt to be a sort of ‘Mister In Between’ or playing both sides but it is an attempt to grapple with the dilemma which we will all face from now on it.
Please give my best regards to the family.8 I hope I will see you soon.
Very truly yours,
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Km
1. Rogers, who solicited King’s views on the split, helped organize in 1960 the Baptist Foreign Mission Bureau, a NBC program that conducted missionary work in Nigeria, Bahamas, and Haiti. In 1961 the NBC and the PNBC split, and after several years of support from both organizations, the PNBC accepted full sponsorship of the Bureau. Although he was partial to the Bureau, Rogers admitted that his lack of experience led him to consult with King on the matter (Rogers to King, 16 February 1962).
2. King went to Puerto Rico on a speaking tour and vacation from 13–24 February.
3. After Ralph Abernathy moved to West Hunter Baptist Church in Atlanta in August 1961, King encouraged Rogers to consider applying to First Baptist Church, Abernathy’s old pastorate (King to Rogers, 13 September 1961). In his 16 February 1962 letter to King, Rogers expressed “a strange feeling of guilt” for not considering the position. Instead, Rogers accepted the call at Galilee Baptist Church in Philadelphia. In 1964 Rogers moved to First African Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and joined the SCLC executive board that same year.
4. In the aftermath of the September 1961 NBC convention, King joined presidential challenger Gardner C. Taylor in publicly advising against forming a separate organization, explaining “what ever is wrong with the convention cannot be corrected by a split” (“New Split Threatens Baptists; Jackson Denies Rapping Dr. King,” Jet, 28 September 1961). For more on Taylor and the NBC, see King to J. H. Jackson, 10 September 1961, and Jackson to King, 12 September 1961, pp. 278–279 and pp. 281–282 in this volume, respectively.
5. On 11 September 1961, Booth, pastor of Zion Baptist Church in Cincinnati, announced a meeting to form a new convention not connected to Taylor’s earlier bid for the presidency of the NBC. According to Booth, the meeting was open to all “freedom loving, independent and peace loving Baptists,” except those that did not want to organize a new convention. The new convention’s proposed constitution included amendments supporting the civil rights movement and tenure limits for elected officers (“National News Release,” 11 September 1961, and Program, “A Volunteer Committee for the Formation of a New National Baptist Convention,” 14–15 November 1961, in William D. Booth, A Call to Greatness [Lawrenceville: Brunswick Publishing, 2001], pp. 178 and 114–119, respectively). The participants who attended the 14–15 November meeting elected T. M. Chambers, pastor of Zion Hill Baptist Church in Los Angeles, president of the new convention.
6. In a letter to Booth, Morehouse College president Benjamin Mays wrote that he also would have preferred “to have had a meeting of 12, 15, or 20 people before announcing the separate convention.” In a handwritten postscript on his letter, Mays wrote, “You & I differ on procedure only” (Mays to Booth, 21 September 1961).
7. The PNBC and the NBC met 4–9 September 1962 in Philadelphia and Chicago, respectively. King did not attend either convention.
8. King refers to Rogers’s wife, La Pelzia, and daughter, Gina.
Source: MLKJP-GAMK, Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers (Series I–IV), Martin Luther King, Jr., Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc., Atlanta, Ga.