Against all odds: the fire shut up in the bones of L. Venchael Booth, founder of the progressive National Baptist Convention: intellectual integrity mandates a disclaimer at the outset. The disclaimer is that I do not come to this subject matter without bias. L. Venchael Booth was my father.

Yet, he was more than my father; he was also the founder of the Progressive National Baptist Convention of America. While a son's bias may blind him to his father's weaknesses, a son's bias may also blind him to his father's greatness. As I caught an ever-widening glimpse of his greatness, I began my quest to ensure that history's record did not slight or ignore him. That quest solidified into a vow to set the record straight and to make certain that those who did not "have the guts to start" the convention, but, nevertheless, have had the "gall to strip" my father of his rightful mantle as the convention's founder would not succeed in placing that mantle upon some "mistaken messiah," to borrow Michael Eric Dyson's phrase.

The attitude I had at the beginning of this quest has now shifted as I have poured over what my father said and what he faced. In light of those discoveries, a sense of sheer amazement at the daring of this one man, my father, has captivated me. Out of that sense of amazement, the question of this inquiry arises: What moved or motivated L. Venchael Booth--a preacher without royal pedigree in the ranks of national Baptist luminaries, without an official portfolio, without an identifiable constituency, without the benefit of backing from even the exiled prelates of his denomination, without the endorsement of the major publications in the African American community, without a core support group, without deep pockets, without the benediction of the revered sages within the pantheon of national Baptist life, and without the organizational muscle equal to that of his formidable foes--to set out to build a new national convention? The daunting nature of this undertaking even awed Booth who later confessed, "It is difficult ... to believe that one man without a committee and without a powerful inner circle would dare to attempt to form a new organization. It is even harder to believe that one man went forward with the conviction that something had to be done if Baptists were ever to be productive and enjoy Fellowship, Progress, and Peace." (1)

Yet, with the same audacious faith displayed by Roger Williams who issued his call to "shelter ... persons distressed for conscience," (2) Booth summoned disenfranchised national Baptists and called for only souls courageous enough to commit to forming a new convention to come to Zion Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, on November 14, 1961, to begin that revolution. That call was made in the face of tremendous obstacles. Private and public opposition to the call came from two pivotal movers and shakers on the denominational and national front. Two preachers of immense presence and stature who were luminaries swayed many Baptists against this new national convention, but later these two leaders--Martin Luther King, Jr., and Gardner C. Taylor--would enjoy the blessings of uniting with that convention. (3) According to Edward L. Wheeler, in "Beyond One Man: A General Survey of Black Baptist Church History," the position of King and Taylor at the outset was clear. Wheeler noted, "Neither Taylor nor the Reverend M. L. King Jr., favored Booth's suggestion; both again called for Unity." (4)

Taylor, in an article published in JET magazine, later confirmed that he would not condone a split from the National Baptist Convention (NBC). In the same article, King struck an ominous note for the future of the fledgling movement by saying, "Whatever is wrong with the convention cannot be corrected by a split." (5) In an interview with Trezzvant W. Anderson of The Courier, Taylor again disavowed any connection with the new movement. Anderson wrote, "Dr. Gardner C. Taylor of Brooklyn, N.Y., defeated presidential candidate of the Jackson opponents, does not want the split." (6) If there had even been a faint hope of attaining Taylor's blessing for a new convention, it vanished with the publication of a letter to the editor of the Journal and Guide. The letter, written by his personal friend and mentor, J. A. Bacoats, then president of Benedict College, in Columbia, South Carolina, was titled "Plea to Avert Split in Nat'l Baptist Convention." Bacoats asserted, apparently without fear of contradiction, that "Dr. Gardner Taylor has already announced his withdrawal from any leadership or participation with forces that would divide." (7) Too much cannot be made of the potentially adverse effect Taylor and King's absence had in short-circuiting the success of Booth's efforts. A man of lesser mettle would have thrown in the towel. But, Booth did not.

The odds against success of a new convention increased greatly when the "fathers" disenchanted with the NBC refused to sanction the idea of creating such a convention. Among the seasoned seers within the national Baptist family withholding approval was E. L. Harrison of the Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., who would later become the convention's fourth president. In a letter, he chided Booth about the timing and suggested his summons was "under the influence of heated temper," (8) and that what was needed was a cooling-off period. In a subsequent letter, Harrison cautioned Booth: "You have gone out ahead of the sentiment of many of our strongest men. They are not ready, nor am I, for the new organization [at this] point [in] time.... We are all for what you are for, but some of us are closer to the whole affair than you or those who are hurrying to organize." (9)

E. C. Smith of the Metropolitan Baptist Church of Washington, D.C., another towering figure within the national Baptist ranks and a colleague of Harrison's, was also not ready. Smith's unreadiness, or more accurately his ambivalence, about a new convention was commented upon in correspondence from T. M. Chambers, the convention's first president, to Booth, then the first vice-president. Chambers wrote: "Smith was one who urged us to wait for other influential men, and at the same time shouting 'Let us take off (smiles)." (10)

Another voice of opposition to the new convention was that of the self-designated "Servant of the Lord's Servants," L. K. Jackson of Gary, Indiana. Jackson, a prophetic gadfly among National Baptists, never hesitated to issue invective upon invective against J. H. Jackson, long-standing president of NBC, or anyone else, for that matter. In a letter to Booth, L. K. Jackson expressed his support for all who would assemble in Cincinnati to oppose the "unchristian, unbrotherly and barbaric manner" (11) in which the NBC had been and still was operating. Yet, Jackson was doubtful that a new convention was the solution to the difficulties and sided with the advocates for unity. (12)

Yet another power with the pen, Thomas E. Huntley, urged Booth to "go slow" (13) until he read his "Second Epistle" (14) to the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc. Huntley counseled Booth to turn the call meeting into "a good 'old fashion prayer meeting' with the boys who attend and give them some good wholesome advice." (15) In short, Huntley advocated doing nothing.

Thomas Kilgore, Jr., who later became president of both the American Baptist Churches and the Progressive National Baptist Convention, (16) was also noncommittal. In writing to Booth, he asserted: "I feel along with many others that there is much to be done among our Baptist forces, but as much as I feel this way, I am not yet committed to a new Baptist organization. It is my feeling that we need to think and pray at this point, and in this light, I must respectfully decline your invitation to attend the meeting." (17)

Discouraged by Booth's position that any opposed to a new convention not attend the meeting in Cincinnati, the venerable pulpiteer J. C. Austin of Chicago, withheld his stamp of approval: "I am willing to come and confer with you," Austin wrote, "but if no one is to be on hand who is not in line with organizing a new Convention, then my trip would be useless and unwanted." (18) In that same letter, he admitted being influenced by E. L. Harrison of Washington, D.C., and King of Georgia (Austin did not indicate whether he was referring to M. L. King, Sr., or M. L. King, Jr.), and as a result, Austin noted that "such a move right now is not the best thing for us." (19) D. E. King of the Zion Baptist Church of Louisville, Kentucky, agreed. He believed that the timing and the spiritual climate simply were not right. King's contention was that preceding the Cincinnati meeting or at least included in the organizational meeting should be a gathering of "a group, representing a cross section of our denominational brotherhood ... to discuss the advisability of organizing a convention." (20) The unreadiness of so many might have rattled a less determined proponent and forced the abandonment of the effort, but Booth remained unshaken.

Several other less influential pastors were less diplomatic and far more strident in their criticisms. Herbert H. Eaton, successor to Martin Luther King, Jr., at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, was "utterly disappointed" (21) with such an effort and could not think of a "more tragic movement" (22) than the one Booth was organizing. While acknowledging that Booth's motives were good, Eaton issued a bleak forecast, predicting there would be "tragedy ahead by splitting off," and "that the consequences of such action [would] be most destructive to the cause of freedom and religion among the majority of the Negro people of our Land." (23) His words undermined the effort to build a new convention, but the degree of impact is uncertain.

Adding to this overwhelming opposition was a lukewarm reception to the idea of a new convention from the two major publications in the black community. A headline, published one month prior to the meeting in Cincinnati in the Afro-American, read: "Jersey ministers 'cool' to bid to back Baptist Convention." (24) The Courier's church columnist, B. H. Logan, took a different tack, arguing that this was "an age of getting together, an age of mergers and consolidations, not separation." (25) Despite his "warm personal relationship with some of the participants of this endeavor," (26) Logan attributed dishonorable motives to the participants and described their efforts as "an expression of ill will," lacking in "appreciation for leadership." (27)

Given these enormous odds, what prompted Booth to take such a risk and to remain resolute in his effort to build a new national Baptist convention? Clues and hints are scattered like seeds in the wind throughout his addresses, speeches, and reflections.

Booth portrayed himself as being worn down by weariness after "years of agony." (28) That agony stemmed in part from the never-ending discussions and debates on the all-night train rides to the NBC meetings dominated by the subject of the presidency or, rather, the president, Joseph Harrison Jackson, "one personality whose genius was so great that no one could defeat him." (29) Those discussions and debates fed the flames of the fire shut up in Booth's bones. He believed that this obsession with the presidency kept the focus of National Baptists off of kingdom objectives. The convention had come to be "personality centered" rather than "cause-centered," and its stewardship was in question. Booth contended that somehow the presidency had to decrease so that the purposes of God could increase. (30)

In his welcoming statement to the twenty-three registrants and thirty-three participants at the November 14, 1961, meeting in Cincinnati, Booth quoted a damming commentary from an anonymous prophet:

   We have glorified ignorance; sanctified evil and crucified
   righteousness. We have used our power to divide the strong; strangle
   the aggressive and crush the weak. Our convention has been one big
   parasite. Our financial contributions have gone on a one-way journey
   to satisfy the greedy and corrupt the weak. There was been little or
   no help forthcoming to raise the level of falling humanity.

   Our convention builds no churches-educates no illiterates and
   strengthens no visible cause of righteousness.

   It has become a place for weak men to get drunk; for fast women to
   play prostitutes and a happy hunting ground for the sordid and
   spiritually sick. (31)

An awareness of what Booth labeled a "growing separation and alienation of great souls who dearly loved the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc." (32) stoked the fire as well. That alienation surfaced in a November 2, 1957, letter written to Booth by Benjamin E. Mays, who apparently was responding to Booth's request for counsel in the wake of the Louisville convention. The cup of frustration of this stellar educator with respect to the convention had apparently run over, and he wrote: "I wish I had some helpful suggestion for the National Baptist Convention. Frankly I have none because I believe no suggestions will be accepted. The convention may be in a state of confusion for years to come." (33) Mays realized that the Jackson regime was not interested in, would not consider, and surely wanted no part of any fresh ideas. Later, E. Washington Rhodes, in a September 6, 1960, open letter, "To The National Baptist Leaders," in the Philadelphia Tribune, quoted an unnamed convention official's assessment that echoed in substance the conclusion Mays had drawn. The quote read: "The National Baptist [Convention] has not adopted a new idea in twenty years. Even the format of the program remains just as it was twenty years ago." (34)

A sadness, an overshadowing melancholy, about national Baptist follies and foibles, including the lifting of tenure for study in Memphis; the disruptions of sessions in Denver; the open fracas in Louisville; the fated presidential bid of Gardner C. Taylor; and the accidental death of a prominent messenger in Kansas City, Missouri, proved to be for Booth the handwriting on the wall, galvanizing his conviction that new wineskins were indispensable for the new wine of a new convention.

W. H. R. Powell, compiler for the new convention's manifesto entitled "A Declaration of the Organization, Principles, and Aims of the PNBC of American, Inc.," drew upon Booth's words in describing the occurrences referred to above as "indefensible, an embarrassment to Baptist churches, an offense to sober intelligence, an enduring impediment to Christian witness, [which] constitute a situation which reasonable men should not be expected longer to tolerate, or violate their conscience in [giving] support [to]." (35)

In This Far By Faith, Juan Williams, PBS commentator, wrote that "the voice of God as it spoke" to Booth would not allow him to "relinquish his commitment to establish an alternative to the National Baptist Convention." (36) His sense of calling to build a new organization, this fire shut up in his bones, was kindled by the Holy Spirit. On one occasion, Booth spoke of the gradual confirmation of this unique call:

   So, in 1957, in Louisville, Kentucky, I believe, that a light broke
   from heaven in my heart. It was there I offered the suggestion that
   if we wanted a convention that honored "tenure," we would have to
   organize one. My voice was so small that it was not even heard, nor
   was it heard in meetings following. It was following Philadelphia
   and Kansas City that it dawned on me that God had called me to offer

   my life as a living sacrifice to lift the Baptist Cause. (37)

Booth's readiness to suffer for the Baptist cause, to be the "living sacrifice," (38) was his passport to leadership, and few other Baptist leaders were willing to participate in his cause.

In an article written for the Progressive National Baptist Convention's twenty-fifth anniversary, Booth enumerated the price paid for accepting the mantle:

   The convener had to give up a popular lectureship in the women's
   convention, a very prestigious assistantship in the pastors'
   division of the Sunday School Congress, and a proud position as
   corresponding secretary of the stewardship division of the
   convention.

   Then too, it involved estrangement from one he admired greatly, and
   to whose church he once belonged. He could never forget that his
   first trip to a national convention was in the company of this great
   preacher and towering leader. He also had to remember that his
   pastor had preached his installment sermon for his first
   outstanding pastorate. The man he had to oppose was not a stranger,
   but a very dear friend.

   I lost many old friends, and my new friends were few and far between
   if one tried to count them.... I lost favored positions in the old
   convention and was greeted with suspicion and suspect in the new....
   Just the same I took an old canvas bag (once owned by the late W. H.
   Williams, illustrious pastor of Antioch Baptist Church) and filled
   it with mimeographed materials and traveled wherever I could to
   promote what I believed to be a just Baptist cause. (39)

Even more indicative of his readiness to suffer is the soaring language with which he closed his welcoming statement to those who gathered that cold November day in 1961 to become the midwives of a new national Baptist convention. These words resonate with a depth of commitment mirrored in the heroes and heroines of our faith:

   If I'm wrong, let me perish. If I'm right, sustain me! For God's
   sake, do not do anything foolish to save me. It is my prayerful hope
   that no one has made the sacrifice to come here just to save me. I'm
   not worthy of it. If you have come to save a cause, then your trip
   was worthy. Men must stop hazarding their precious lives on
   worthless missions. If you came with no greater passion than to save
   me-then you have come to our city in vain. There is either a cause
   to be saved or there is nothing to be saved. We either have a valid
   claim in assembling ourselves together or we assemble ourselves as
   just another group of false prophets. We need men today who are
   certain about something. We need men today who are full of faith and
   charged with the Holy Spirit. We need men today who are not afraid
   to act and also who are not afraid to take the consequences. (40)

Booth's weariness with the obsession over the presidency in the NBC; his awareness of the growing alienation felt by those who loved the convention; his sadness, tinged with shame, over National Baptist follies and foibles; his willingness to accept and honor God's call upon his life; and his readiness to suffer the consequences of trumpeting the call for a new national Baptist convention provided the kindling wood set ablaze by the Holy Spirit, igniting the fire shut up in Booth's bones, so he could do nothing less than birth the Progressive National Baptist Convention of America.

(1.) L. Venchael Booth, "A Challenging Beginning," 25th Anniversary Reflection in William D. Booth, A Call TO Greatness: The Story of the Founding of the Progressive National Baptist Convention (Lawrenceville, VA: Brunswick Publishing Corporation, 2001), Appendix 56, 191.

(2.) O. K. Armstrong and Marjorie Moore Armstrong, The Indomitable Baptists (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1967), 50.

(3.) Martin Luther King, Jr., gained support within the African American Baptist family through the Progressive National Baptist Convention and avoided the anomaly and onus of not being supported by a national Baptist body of his own ethnicity. Gardner C. Taylor, denied the presidency in the National Baptist Convention, was afforded the opportunity through the Progressive National Baptist Convention to become president of a national Baptist body, recouping with dignity his loss to J. J. Jackson. Taylor, the undisputed "prince of preachers," also gained a major platform.

(4.) Edward L. Wheeler, "Survey of Black Baptist Church History," Review and Expositor, 70, no. 3 (Summer 1973): 317.

(5.) "New Split Threatens Baptists; Jackson Denies Rapping Dr. King, "JET, 28 September 1961, 18. Trezzvant W. Anderson, "King Won't Fight Firing by Jackson," The Courier, 23 September 1961, sec. 2, 2.

(6.) J. A. Bacoats, "Plea To Avert Split In Nat'l Baptist Convention," Journal and Guide, 14 October 1961, 9.

(7.) E. L. Harrison to L. Venchael Booth, 19 September 1961.

(8.) E. L. Harrison to L. Venchael Booth, 4 October 1961.

(9.) T M. Chambers to L. Venchael Booth, 15 May 1962.

(10.) L. K. Jackson to L. Venchael Booth, 13 November 1961.

(11.) Ibid.

(12.) Thomas E. Huntley to L. Venchael Booth, 11 November 1961.

(13.) Ibid.

(14.) Ibid.

(15.) In a sense, Thomas Kilgore, Jr., by attaining to the presidency of the American Baptist Churches and the Progressive National Baptist Convention, was to the Baptist cause what Prank Robinson was to baseball. Frank Robinson was the only player to win the Most Valuable Player award in both the National and American Leagues, and Kilgore was the only African American Baptist to ascend to the presidency of ABG and PNBC.

(16.) Thomas Kilgore, Jr., to L. Venchael Booth, 30 October 1961.

(17.) C. Austin to L. Venchael Booth, 10 October 1961.

(18.) Ibid.

(19.) D. E. King to L. Venchael Booth, 12 October 1961.

(20.) Herbert H. Eaton to L. Venchael Booth, 18 September 1961.

(21.) Ibid.

(22.) Ibid.

(23.) "Jersey ministers 'cool' to bid to back Baptist Convention," Afro-American, 10 October 1961, 20

(24.) B. H. Logan, "The Church World," The Courier, 30 September 1961, sec. 2, 10.

(25.) Ibid.

(26.) Ibid.

(27.) Booth, "A Challenging Beginning," 191.

(28.) Ibid.

(29.) A key argument made by Booth was that the failure to establish tenure in the National Baptist Convention was tantamount to admitting that blacks were not "ready for integration." He believed that failing to establish tenure was a confession that black leadership was "limited." In short, the institutionalization of tenure would be an indication that many blacks had the ability to lead within their own ranks and were granting access to leadership opportunities to many people. Booth contended that to press for equality and inclusion in the larger society, while at the same time practicing inequality in the smaller Afro-American world, was a contradiction betraying "all that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and all of the other militant Baptist leaders have fought for and accomplished." The incongruity of blacks seeking freedom from "the white man" while maintaining a form of organizational bondage within their own circles was a self-evident consequence of not instituting tenure.

(30.) L. V. Booth, "Statement of Welcome and Purpose," in Booth, A Call To Greatness, Appendix 46, 123.

(31.) Booth, "A Challenging Beginning," 191.

(32.) Benjamin E. Mays to L. V. Booth, 2 November 1957.

(33.) E. Washington Rhodes, "To The National Baptist Leaders" Philadelphia Tribune, 6 September 1960, sec. 2, 1.

(34.) W. H. R. Powell, "Toward the Creation of a New Convention: A Declaration of the Organization, Principles, and Aims of the Progressive Baptist Convention of America, Incorporation," in Booth, A Call to Greatness, Appendix 26, 75.

(35.) Juan williams and Quinton Dixie, This Far By Faith: Stories from the African American Religious Experience (New York: HarperConins, 2003), 251-52.

(36.) L. Venchael Booth, "Reflections and Projections of the Midwest Region of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc." in Booth, A Call To Greatness, Appendix 63, 226.

(37.) Ibid.

(38.) Booth, "A Challenging Beginning," 193, 194. Few people are aware of the close personal relationship between Joseph Harrison Jackson and L. Venchael Booth. Both were Mississippians, and Jackson was Booth's father in the ministry, having been his pastor, having delivered his installation sermon (September 1944) at First Baptist in Gary, Indiana, and having accompanied him on his first trip to the National Baptist Convention. In 1984, Jackson preached the installation sermon for Booth's son, William D. Booth, who had also been called to First Baptist Church of Gary, Indiana. After the Progressive National Convention was established and stabilized, Jackson became a closer confidant of L. V: Booth than many within the ranks of the new convention.

There is a real need to reassess the place and perception of J. H. Jackson, who has been often unfairly demonized. Jackson's differences with King can be likened to the differences between Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Dubois. Jackson and Washington wanted to work within the system, whereas King and Dubois wanted to challenge the system to be what it should be. Jackson's philosophy that blacks needed to move from protest to production was not wrong, but it was simply out of season. In the waning years of the Civil Rights Movement, a transition occurred that took the movement from protest to production, though that language was not used. Leon Sullivan picked up Jackson's standard and philosophy of production through his OIC (Opportunity Industrialization Center) and PAED (Progress Association for Economic Development).

(39.) Booth, "Statement of Welcome and Purpose," 121-25.

William D. Booth is pastor of First Baptist Church of Hampton, Virginia.