Pastors as Politicians

By DON ROLLINS

“...for some people, [it’s] an extraordinary step for a clergyperson to operate beyond the pulpit and enter the rough-and-tumble of politics. I am aware of the risk. But I am embracing it because I think the times demand it.” - Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock

When news broke in February their preacher had officially declared for the US Senate, a few members of downtown Atlanta’s storied Ebenezer Baptist Church were said to be perplexed by the idea of their minister running for national office. Steeped in the tradition of prophetic pastors who worked outside the power structures they sought to change (recall Dr. King co-led, then led Ebenezer for eight years), Warnock’s announcement signaled a departure from the grassroots activism of his hallowed predecessor.

But while the shift in approach may have raised an eyebrow or two, a successful Warnock campaign would place him squarely in the fold of a different black activist tradition: the African American pastor cum elected politician.

The mold Warnock aims to emulate was cast during the highly politically charged aftermath of the postwar 1870s. The circumstances involved a vacated seat in Mississippi’s US Senate delegation — the seat at one time occupied by no less than Jefferson Davis - and a reluctant, college-trained, black minister named Hiram Rhodes Revels.

Although hard to comprehend by later standards, the vacancy had existed off and on since the declaration of the Civil War. Anxious to at least temporarily hold the seat, pro-Reconstruction Republicans cast about for a candidate sure to influence African Americans in the House to support GOP bills.

Revels was vetted, reluctant, but willing to stand for balloting. Three days and seven votes later, Hiram Revels was the first Black man to serve in the Senate — a reality in part brought about by aggressively racist Democrats hoping Revels would embarrass his party with “crude ideas and speech.”

To Democrats’ chagrin, Revels proved an effective orator despite a barely-one-year term: he helped shape later discussions for Southern restoration to the Union, integrated schools and equality before the law.

Revels left the Senate in March, 1871. He went to co-found Alcorn State University, and returned to ministry until shortly before his death in 1901.

Revels’ legacy as a black minister in the halls of Congress has since inspired a handful of other preeminent Black clergy (see John Lewis) but has been most prominently incarnated by Adam Clayton Powell, a powerful and oft times controversial Democratic voice in the House from 1945-1972.

Like Revels, Powell’s theology informed his political life, imprinting him with a concern for the disenfranchised despite his background of relative privilege. But by comparison, Powell’s long tenure placed him at the center of some of the most contentious moments of 20th century America: race, poverty, war and assassinations of Malcolm X, JFK, Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy.

Thus, if Revels was the pioneer for black pastors cum politicians, Powell should be remembered as the prophet who assumed that same banner.

As for Raphael Warnock’s run for the Senate he would, like Revels, complete a vacated term (albeit for three years and under the Democratic banner). While not a pioneer, he could by his very status as one of Dr. King’s foremost successors bring levity and history to the office.

And as Warnock shared in a New York Times phone interview from last January, he considers Powell a hero who lent a progressive Christian perspective, considering public service to be a form of ministry.

The field there in Georgia is still a crowded one, but Warnock was endorsed by former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who narrowly lost in 2018 yet remains popular with the state’s Democratic base. That can’t hurt his chances.

If elected, Warnock would likely be neither a pioneer nor a prophet. But he might be enough of both to turn an important seat for his party.

Don Rollins is a Unitarian Universalist minister living in Hendersonville, N.C. Email donaldlrollins@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, April 15, 2020

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