Political activist James Foreman asked Pastor Ernest T. Campbell (1923-2010) for permission to read the Black Manifesto in worship the next day at Riverside Church in upper Manhattan. The manifesto called for 500 million dollars in reparation from white churches and synagogues for participation in the injustices of slavery and segregation against African Americans. Campbell said Foreman was free to distribute literature on public property before the service but denied him permission to speak. On Sunday morning, May 4, 1969, Foreman walked down the center aisle at the opening hymn, stood in the chancel, and began to read the manifesto. Campbell signaled for the organist to play as he and most of the congregation walked out. The event placed Riverside Church and Campbell in the national spotlight. When Campbell came to Riverside in 1968, he vowed to reconcile those who emphasized a personal relationship with Jesus with those who advocated for social justice. As a conservative Bob Jones University graduate and mainline Princeton Theological Seminary, Campbell seemed well-suited to bridge the great divide. Two months after the manifesto Sunday, Campbell surprised his congregation by preaching on “The Case for Reparations.” He based his July 13th sermon on the story of Zacchaeus who, after coming to saving faith in Jesus, pledged to make fourfold reparations to any he had defrauded (Luke 19.8).
“Why should we help the black man?” Campbell asked. “My parents were foreign-born (they emigrated from Ireland, and his father was a streetcar operator in NYC). They came here and made good without any outside help. The answer is that the cases are not similar. Your parents came voluntarily. These people were brought over by our compulsion. They were denied assimilation into normal American life—a deprivation European immigrants did not face.” It was a bold, controversial sermon and timely still. While the way forward on reparations remains unclear, surely, we have more work to do on making things right with those we have wronged. In the end, Riverside collected $350,00 (three million in today’s dollars) for social ministry in the city. Campbell ended his sermon with the prayer that follows here:
Ernest T. Campbell
Give us, Almighty God, a knowledge of what is right and the power to do the right we know. And when we have done our best, we will still be unprofitable servants, saved by Thy grace alone through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Ernest T. Campbell, “The Case for Reparations, Sermons from Riverside
Rev. Dr. Peter James served 42 years as the senior of Vienna Presbyterian Church in Vienna, VA — 21 years in the 20th century and 21 years in the 21st century. He retired in 2021 and now serves as Pastor-in-Residence at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Even as a pastor, prayer came slowly to Pete. Read Pete’s story.