‘Born of Conviction,’ 40 years later

updated 3:56 p.m. ET June 5, 2005

JACKSON, Miss. - The Rev. Keith Tonkel, a white United Methodist, knew signing a simple statement against racism could put his life and those of his colleagues in peril. It was four decades ago and Mississippi remained a stronghold of segregation.

He signed the document anyway.

The backlash was swift for him and the 27 other white Methodist clergy who added their names to the “Born of Conviction” declaration. Some were ousted by their congregations and fled Mississippi under death threats. Others left freely. Some stayed and fought.

On Monday, for the first time, they will hold a reunion in Mississippi. At least 13 plan to attend the reunion. Eight have died.

The 1963 statement, benign by today’s standards, was explosive in its time. The ministers denounced racism, communism and the threatened closure of public schools that were facing integration.

“Our Lord Jesus Christ teaches that all men are brothers,” they wrote. “He permits no discrimination because of race, color, or creed.”

They mailed the document to newspapers and waited. Then came the fallout.

Tonkel was among those who stayed, despite the public reaction.

Timely gathering
“I said to them, ’I’m only signing this thing with the understanding we’re committed to staying in Mississippi,”’ said Tonkel, 69, who has led the interracial Wells United Methodist Church in Jackson for 36 years. “How can you flesh out a conviction if you’re absent? I thought our responsibility was to see what we can create that would be inclusive.”

The gathering coincides with the Mississippi Methodist Conference’s annual meeting in Jackson. It also occurs a week before the opening of the Philadelphia, Miss., murder trial of a reputed Ku Klux Klansman accused of the 1964 murders of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, civil rights volunteers who helped blacks register to vote.

Four clergymen — Gerald Trigg, Maxie Dunnam, Jim Waits and Jerry Furr — were the original authors of “Born of Conviction.” They secretly met at Dunnam’s southern Mississippi river camp and worked overnight on the document.

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