Racist Thought and the Presbyterian Church in the of America

The Presbyterian Church, with roughly 3 million congregants across the country, has attracted independent thinkers dating back to 16th-century followers of John Calvin, a leader of the Protestant Reformation, Wilkins said. Five Presbyterians signed the Declaration of Independence.

But the church split during the Civil War over how the Bible was interpreted. Many Southerners felt the Bible provided justifications for slavery, and Northerners said there was no justification. That battle was laid to rest in 1983 with the unification of the two churches.

In the colonial era, Scots-Irish immigrants comprised the large part of American Presbyterians. Either coming directly from their homeland—or, more commonly, having resided in northern for one or more generations—these immigrants chiefly settled in the middle colonies from New York to Virginia, where they lived among slaveholders and sometimes owned slaves themselves.

The Reverend Francis Makemie is often regarded as the father of the denomination: he played a major role in forming early congregations, organized the first American presbytery in 1706, and contributed to the establishment of the principle of religious toleration though a notable court case in New York the following year. He also held property in human beings. A native of Donegal, Ireland, Makemie resided for some time in the British colony of , whose prosperity depended on slaves and sugar, and his residence in Barbados and trade with the colony financially supported his ministerial labor in North America. Makemie later married into a wealthy family in Accomack County on the eastern shore of Virginia, where he acquired substantial land holdings. His 1708 will also listed and ordered the distribution of thirty-three chattel slaves.

Samuel Davies, the (College of New Jersey’s) or “”Princeton’s fourth president (1759-61), was a pioneering Presbyterian minister on Virginia’s western frontier and one of the earliest missionaries to enslaved people in the British colonies. Davies preached the spiritual equality of Africans and African Americans and supported the education of enslaved people, but owned at least two slaves during his life.

He did much to extend into the Piedmont area of Virginia during the 1740s and ‘50s. Davies preached in a warmly evangelical fashion typical of the Great Awakening, and was particularly interested in ministering to slaves. He championed literacy for enslaved people and seemed deeply committed to their spiritual welfare. However, he never questioned the legitimacy of human bondage and owned slaves himself in Virginia Non-clergy participated in American slavery and the slave trade to a greater extent than church leaders such as Makemie and Davies. Scots and Scots-Irish laypeople played a disproportionately large role as traders, managers, or owners in the plantation system. It is perhaps noteworthy that two slaveholding U.S. Presidents nurtured in the Scots- Irish tradition—Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk—pursued policies in the 19th century that greatly increased the territory available for the expansion of slavery.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), byname PC(USA), U.S. Protestant denomination formed on June 10, 1983, in the merger of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (headquartered in New York City) and the Presbyterian Church in the United States (headquartered in Atlanta). The merger ended a North-South split among Presbyterians that dated from the American Civil War.

The Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS, originally Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America) was a Protestant Christian denomination in the Southern and border states of the United States that existed from 1861 to 1983. That year it merged with the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (UPCUSA) to form the Presbyterian Church (USA). This is the Church to which our church belongs today.

The façade of our building testifies to our divided history, rooted in the story of slavery and white supremacy of our Presbyterian Church. We belonged originally to the northern or “united” Presbyterian Church – which is evident from the front of our building.

But while our church was part of the Church that opposed slavery it was built in an emerging neighborhood that was rooted in white supremacy.

College Avenue Presbyterian Church is a church dating back to 1890. The current location at 5951 College Avenue in Rockridge dates back to 1913, and the building was designed by Julia Morgan and completed in 1917. The church is known in part for a long-running Friday night meals ministry to feed the homed and homeless. (taken from localwiki.org). And yet our church was rooted historically in white supremacy.

On June 24, 1913, Dr. James Francis Ross, of Los Angeles, came to pastor Hanna Memorial Church. During his pastorate a new lot was bought in the Claremont-Rockridge District on College Avenue at Harwood. Construction began even before the Castro Street property had been sold. Julia Morgan was contracted for the architectural design, implemented by her building contractor, Duncan MacMillan. The premise for moving to the new location was motivated by the insight that downtown Oakland was heavily churched, and that a church can do the most good in a residential area, and that the people who need a church most are not the ones who will travel to a downtown church, Since Oakland was expanding Northward and Eastward the College Avenue property was negotiated in 1913. The congregation moved from the down-town location into the present facility on September 23, 1917, eventually followed by a Service of Dedication on November 4th, 1917.

The church has moved from downtown to the developing area called Rockridge Park – a most desirous place to live – that forbad ownership or leaseship to “negroes, Chinese or Japanese.”

How do we then respond to our history as a Church that opposed slavery as justified by the Bible and yet expanded to plant itself in an area that made illegal any sort of racial integration? It’s quite different than our reality of 2020. And yet it’s part of our history.