Protest and Progress-Black Seventh-day Adventist Leadership and the Push for Parity: A Review

Back in the 1930s my grandfather, David L Glenn Sr, an engineer had a job building a large hotel in Macon, Georgia. Grandpa was told “Don’t hire black people, they won’t give you a good day’s work.”

Grandpa said if you treat them the same as everyone else they will work the same as everyone else.  Grandpa hired many black men and they worked just fine.

My friend Dr. James E Johnson, who served 20 plus years in the Marines and later as an Assistant Secretary of the United States Navy, was an African American whose favorite subjects to speak on were Love and Forgiveness. One day, he was speaking to a large group and at the end of the meeting, a white gentleman went forward to shake his hand.  Dr Johnson gave him a hug which was very normal for him.

When the white gentleman got back to his office, he was all bubbly about the inspiration he received from Dr. Johnson’s speech and he excitedly told his work associate about it; he gushed about how he was so impressed with the speech, he went over and talked with Dr Johnson and they hugged each other.  The associate said, “you mean you hugged Dr. Johnson, isn’t he black?”

The gentleman said he didn’t ask him what color he was. This was meant to be a lesson to the obviously racist workmate that when a person loves with God’s love the color of one’s skin doesn’t matter.

For my part, when I was a child, my family lived in Puget Sound, Washington state. We had a small countryside church and different Adventist pastors from various churches would come to preach at our church. It was special when Pastor Lawrence from the Spruce street Church in Seattle came to speak at our church. Spruce Street was the main Black Adventist church in Seattle at that time.

Unfortunately, however, race relations are not as simple as the stories that I have mentioned above. Dr Rock in Protest and Progress gives some history of the development of race relations within the membership of the Adventist church and as the title of the book suggests, the book deals with both protest and progress.

WhileI knew bits and pieces of much of the history chronicled in this new book, the book brought the stories together in a readable way and in a manner that shows how progress has been made but there is still more progress that is needed.

Dr. Douglas Morgan from Washington Adventist University says that this is “The most important book published on race relations in the Adventist Church.”

I like the fact that Dr Rock very bluntly and factually tells of the problems, the progress and his views on the situation. Dr Rock has been a leader in the Adventist Church for more than 60 years, so he has first-hand knowledge of much of this history.

I would recommend reading this book for anyone in leadership, and we are all are leaders one way or another.  You likely can purchase a copy at your Adventist book store. Call 1-800-765-6955.

Or if they do not have a copy left in stock it is also available from the publisher Andrews University Press phone 269-471-6134.or online here