Racial Justice

Enrich our growing community.

• 1930 SGC is founded in a neighborhood that was explicitly & intentionally segregated
• 1953 SGC’s first known Black preacher, Rev Amugbe Shodekeh from Sierra Leone West Africa
• 1953 (February 22) Rev Everrett Parker guest preaches, he would later go on to collaborate with Rev Dr MLK to organize a campaign challenging the racist lack of representation on American TV
• 1955 (November 20) First Asian preacher, Rev Kiyoshi Tanimoto of Hiroshima, Japan
• 1960 (April 24) First recorded African American clergy preaching, Rev William Philpot of Community Baptist Church
• 1960 (June 4) Rev Buck Coe preaches “A New Creation” about the sin of racism & segregation, calling for integration of all institutions including churches, and calls out resistance to integration both in the South and in Spring Glen Church itself.
• 1961 In May, Former SGC member, Yale Chaplain, and Wesleyan Faculty John Maguire participates in the Freedom Rides
• 1962 Rev Forrest Johnson (who would later become Senior Pastor of SGC) was arrested on the Albany, GA courthouse steps while praying with Rev Dr MLK Jr. They fasted for 36 hours in jail. Prior to their arrest, Dr King had commissioned Rev Johnson to speak with local white clergy in Albany. Later in life, Rev Johnson would become an active member of PFLAG and an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights.
• 1965 Former Senior Pastor Buckner Coe marches in Selma;
• 1968 member & former interim minister Gaylord Noyce arrested as Freedom Rider;
• 1969 SGC & Community Baptist partner on interracial Vacation Bible School
• 1971 (May 9) Rev Thomas Scott preaches about the inequity of the bail system in the US
• 1974 First known instance of SGC sponsoring a refugee family when we helped resettle a family from Vietnam
• 1977 (June 12) Famed pastor Rev Samuel Slie preaches at SGC and again on September 4 along with YDS professor SGC member James Dittes
• 1981 Cecil Davis becomes the first known Black member of Spring Glen Church and first known interracial family with wife Susan and daughter Sally.
• 1986Sally Davis first known biracial Black person to be confirmed at SGC.
• 1988-1989 Paul Lee serves as seminarian “Parish Associate,” the first Asian American clergy on staff
• 1989-1990 Jennifer Ramirez serves as seminarian “Parish Associate,” the first Hispanic clergy on staff
• 1991 (January 20) President of the United Congregational Church of South Africa Rev Hendrick Pillay preached, at least the third time clergy or missionary from South Africa preached at SGC about apartheid
• 2000 Rev Nayiri Karjian serves as interim and first Middle Eastern woman Senior Pastor
• 2017Calvon Jones, first Black Member-in-Discernment ordained;
• 2018 Gabby Cudjoe-Wilkes, first Black clergy on staff;
• 2021Dawn Jefferson & JaQuan Beachem, first Black openly LGBTQ+ Members-in-Discernment Ordained