Oakwood College Students' Quest for Social Justice before and during the Civil Rights Era

Abstract

Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church is a worldwide, multiracial, and conservative Christian denomination with a well-established educational system that includes Oakwood College, located in Huntsville, Alabama, and founded in 1896 as denomination's only historically black college. Prior to U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, Oakwood College students often displayed strong determination and perseverance in organizing their own social and civil rights movements within SDA church. students occasionally organized demonstrations and even participated in sit-ins and other nonviolent protests in an attempt to eradicate racially discriminatory practices inside and outside denomination. In 19th century within sensitive area of race relations, Seventh-day Adventist leaders opposed slavery, but accepted practices of segregation and doctrines of white racial superiority pervasive in post-Reconstruction era. conservative SDA tradition in racial matters presented a challenge to black student activists in 1930s and 1960s. This study focuses on student struggles over civil rights and social justice at Oakwood College. In explaining social activism of Oakwood College students, it is important to understand origin of Seventh-day Adventist denomination, its unique history of race relations, and purposes for establishing Oakwood College. (1) ORIGIN AND FOUNDING OF THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH Seventh-day Adventist church grew out of an interdenominational movement of 1840s during Second Awakening of religious fervor in United States. (2) William Miller, an ordained Baptist minister, preached in Low Hampton, New York, and its surrounding cities and towns about the coming of Jesus Christ, based on his rigorous study of book of Daniel in Old Testament. (3) From his initial preaching at Baptist Church of Dresden on August 14, 1831, to fall of 1834, Miller worked as an intermittent speaker in Dresden, New York, Poultney and Pawlet, Vermont, and other towns in rural areas of upper Northeast. (4) On September 14, 1833, congregation of Baptist Church of Hampton-Whitehall voted to issue him a license to preach. Likewise, in 1835 he was credentialed by several Baptist and other denominational clergymen of New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Canada. By 1843 he and Joseph Himes, a Millerite minister, issued first publications of Movement, including Signs of Times, Glad Tidings, Midnight Cry, and Advent Chronicle. However, by 1843 traditional clergymen vehemently opposed Millerite movement because of its strong adherence to setting a specific date for of Jesus Christ. Inevitably, clergymen gave ultimatums to their membership who became Millerites to either renounce these religious convictions or leave their respective churches. However, Millerites maintained their beliefs, remained in their churches, and continued to spread their religious message. (5) It was also during this time that Rev. Miller outlined a series of dates for return of Jesus Christ, and as a result, date October 22, 1844, is generally referred to as day of Great Disappointment. (6) Although did not return, some of followers reevaluated purposes of movement, and decided that they should emphasize second advent of Christ through evangelism, and not predicting specific dates for coming. (7) Joseph Bates, a Millerite and Sabbatarian (one who worships on Saturday, biblical Sabbath), issued a pamphlet in 1844 entitled, The Seventh-Day Sabbath: A Perpetual Sign, that convinced two Millerites, Ellen Gould White and her husband James White, to become Sabbath observers. (8) After Disappointment, Millerite movement split into three different camps: proponents of a date of after 1844, those who believed in promoting a primitive organization of Evangelical Adventists, and group known as Sabbatarians who espoused teaching of Biblical seventh-day Sabbath. …