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RACE AND RELIGION IN THE BAYOU CITY: LATINO/A, AFRICAN AMERICAN, AND ANGLO BAPTISTS IN HOUSTON’S LONG CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT A Dissertation by DAVID JEFFREY CAMERON Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, Felipe Hinojosa Committee Members, Carlos Blanton Angela Pulley Hudson April Hatfield Joseph Jewell Head of Department, David Vaught August 2017 Major Subject: History Copyright 2017 David Jeffrey Cameron ABSTRACT While studies that examine religion in movements for social justice have increased in recent years, the intersections of race and religion remain understudied. Therefore, this dissertation is a relational and comparative study of Mexican American, African American, and Anglo Baptists in the Houston area as they engaged the struggle for civil rights through religious associations, churches, and leaders. It demonstrates that race and religion in Houston’s long civil rights movements produced changes in two directions: religion influenced Baptists’ involvement with the movements, and the movement itself influenced Baptists’ religious lives. I argue that from the 1910s through the 1970s, religion played a central role in Baptist efforts to both uphold and challenge the color line in Houston. Influential white Baptists attempted to protect white privilege and power by using their influence, religious organizations, and doctrine to enforce and protect the Jim Crow system toward both black and brown communities. At the same time Mexican American and African American Baptist leaders attempted to use the religious resources at their disposal to mitigate the effects of inequality and push back against racism. However, the long civil rights movement opened a space, a window of opportunity, for white, black, and brown Baptists to challenge racism in churches and in their denominations and to find new and creative ways of taking religious identity politics into the surrounding communities. And black and brown Baptists, sometimes with the help of progressive white Baptists, capitalized on the moment to mobilize religion and weaken the power of the color line and racial inequality. ii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my grandfather, the Reverend James Arthur Wray (1922-2017), whose love for God and dedication to equality inspired my interest in this topic; to my wife, Devon Michelle Cameron, who has walked this journey with me and without whose support, encouragement, and love, this project would not have been possible; and to my sons, Caleb and Benjamin, who have grown up with this dissertation and who motivate me to finish well. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my dissertation committee chair, Dr. Felipe Hinojosa. His mentorship, encouragement, and critical feedback have been invaluable throughout my time at Texas A&M University. I would also like to acknowledge my committee members, Dr. Carlos Blanton, Dr. Angela Pulley Hudson, Dr. April Hatfield, and Dr. Joseph Jewell, for their guidance and support as I have moved through the research and writing phases of this project. The research process has a tendency to incur many debts along the way. I would not have been able to complete this dissertation without the help of archival experts: Bill Sumners and Taffey Hall at the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, Alan LeFever and Naomi Taplin at the Texas Baptist Historical Collections, and Mika Selley and the staff of the Houston Metropolitan Research Center. I am grateful for their extensive knowledge of manuscript evidence and for being so generous with their time. I would also like to thank Florence Davies, writing consultant extraordinaire at the Texas A&M University Writing Center, for taking the time to read through each one of my chapters. My friends and colleagues in the Department of History and the University Writing Center provided much needed moral support, especially when writing and revising became especially grueling. Thanks also go to my parents, Melanie and Jeff Cameron, for their unwavering belief in my potential and abilities. I am fortunate to have parents who understand how important their support is – even when their children are grown. iv Most of all, I would like thank my wife, Devon, and our two sons, Caleb and Benjamin. Devon, it is hardly enough to say that this dissertation (and my entire graduate career) would have been impossible without you. Thank you for your sacrifices, your untiring support and encouragement, your unwavering faith, and your love. This is for you. Caleb and Benjamin, I am thankful for your patience and understanding, as you have had to grow up alongside my dissertation. But most of all, I am thankful for all the sounds of laughter and discovery on the other side of my office door. It reminds me that there are only so many hours in any day and that they must be spent on things that really matter. My hope is that one day in the future, what I have written will speak to you and that you will grow up to be men dedicated to love, mercy, faith, and justice. v CONTRIBUTORS AND FUNDING SOURCES This work was supervised by a dissertation committee consisting of Professor Felipe Hinojosa, my advisor, as well as Professors Carlos Blanton, Angela Hudson, and April Hatfield of the Department of History and Professor Joseph Jewell of the Department of Sociology. I completed all of the work for this dissertation independently. Graduate study and research was supported by the following sources of funding: a graduate teaching assistantship (Texas A&M University Department of History), the Lynn E. May, Jr., Study Grant (Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives), the Ron Stone Texas History Grant (Ron Stone Foundation for the Enhancement and Study of Texas, Texas A&M University), the Catarino and Evangelina Hernández Research Fellowship in Latino History (Texas State Historical Association), the Vision 2020 Dissertation Enhancement Award (College of Liberal Arts, Texas A&M University), the Department of History Dissertation Research Fellowship (Texas A&M University Department of History), the Portal to Texas History Research Fellowship (University of North Texas Libraries), and the Summertime for Advancement in Research Fellowship (College of Liberal Arts, Texas A&M University). vi NOMENCLATURE BGCT Baptist General Convention of Texas CLC Christian Life Commission HMRC Houston Metropolitan Research Center SBC Southern Baptist Convention SBHLA Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives TBHC Texas Baptist Historical Collections UBA Union Baptist Association vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. iv CONTRIBUTORS AND FUNDING SOURCES ............................................................. vi NOMENCLATURE ......................................................................................................... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ x CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 Thesis and Argument ..................................................................................................... 4 Significance of the Problem ........................................................................................... 7 Definitions of Terms .................................................................................................... 12 Methodology and Sources ............................................................................................ 17 Houston at the Turn of the Century .............................................................................. 19 Chapter Outline ............................................................................................................ 30 CHAPTER II “CHRISTIAN DIGNITARIES”: WHITE AND BLACK BAPTISTS IN JIM CROW HOUSTON ............................................................................................. 34 White Baptists, Moral Authority, and the Ku Klux Klan in Houston .......................... 41 White Baptists and the Doctrine of Segregation .......................................................... 53 Black Baptist Ministers: Organizing for Resistance .................................................... 63 The Baptist Ministers Association: Rev. L. H. Simpson and Direct Action ................ 68 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 77 CHAPTER III OTHER TONGUES AND FOREIGN BLOOD: ANGLO AND MEXICAN AMERICAN BAPTISTS AND RACE ........................................................ 79 White Baptists, the Doctrine of Segregation, and Mexican Americans ....................... 83 Anglo Baptists in Houston: Missionaries of Americanization ..................................... 94 Mexican American Baptists: Institutions of Their Own ............................................ 102 Mexican American Baptist Churches: