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Give Me That Old Time Religion Called Protests: North Carolina’s Moral Monday

Movement and The Black Church

Danielle M. Koonce

May 5, 2015

Introduction

Historically, the black church has always been an integral part of the black community.

E. Franklin Frazier describes the black church prior to the 60’s as “leaving its imprint upon

practically every aspect of Negro life…due to the restricted participation of Negroes in American

life” (p. 90). W.E.B. Dubois in 1898 described the black church as “the only social institution

among the Negroes which started in the African forest and survived slavery…so that today the

Negro population of the United States is virtually divided into Church congregations, which are

the real units of the race life…” (p. 5). However, C. Eric Lincoln building off of both Frazier

and Dubois describes the black church in new terms: “The Negro church that Frazier wrote about

no longer exists…It died an agonized death in the harsh turmoil…of the “Savage Sixties” for

there it had to confront under the most trying circumstances the possibility that “Negro” and

“Christian” were irreconcilable categories” (p. 105).

Due to the “Savage Sixties” black Americans would no longer endure second-class

citizenship. Led by clergymen such as Rev. T. J. Jemison, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Rev.

Fred Shuttlesworth, and Rev. Ralph Abernathy, the Civil Rights Movement developed into a

socially conscious, overtly Christian, and Southern-based social justice framework. The results

of this clergy-led and black-church supported movement included the passage of the 1965

Voting Rights Act, and 1964 Civil Rights Act. The black-church and thus the black-community

had achieved an incredible feat. Due to the strategic organizing efforts, charismatic leadership

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and collective resources of black churches and black communities, white supremacy,

institutionalized racism, and federally supported political oppression had been challenged.

Moreover, federal laws ensured these various types of oppression would never be the same in

form or method.

50 years later, citizens of the United States continue to fight for equality and social

justice, and although the black church’s role in the fight is different, it is still present in a

different form known primarily as black political activism (Harris, 1999). Harris explains that

black political activism is a mixture of religious and political activism and differs in “levels of

commitment actors devote to political action.” These levels of commitment are the subject of this

study as it relates to the Moral Monday Movement in North Carolina.

In 2013, in a response to several actions by North Carolina’s government and governor,

Pat McCrory, Rev., Dr. William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP, initiated civil

disobedience throughout the state through peaceful sit-ins at the state’s legislative building, and

marches at the state capital, Raleigh, in a campaign now known as Moral Mondays. Two years

later, the Moral Monday Movement continues to protest the state’s legislative decisions

(Medicaid cuts, education cuts, unemployment aid decreases, tax breaks for the wealthy, etc.)

which continue to draw the ire of some North Carolinians including members of clergy, teacher’s

associations, immigration activists, student protestors, and gay rights activists. Given the crucial

role that black churches and clergy leaders performed in the Civil Rights Movement of the 50’s

and 60’s (Morris, 1984), I wanted to observe and understand the role that black churches in

North Carolina are playing in the Moral Monday Movement. Given the magnitude of this type

of research, this initial paper is only an introduction to research that will be continued further at a

later date. By interviewing churches and investigating websites and social media outlets of eight

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churches in the Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina which is also the center of the Moral

Monday rallies and protests, I attempt to observe how various black-attended churches have

responded to the Moral Monday movement.

Since the Moral Monday Movement is ongoing, I chose to focus on one particular event,

the 9th Annual Moral March on Raleigh on Saturday, February 14, 2015. As the flyer advertises

the march was an opportunity for a “love and justice revival” (see flyer in appendix). The Moral

Monday March was advertised through word of mouth, social media outlets such as Facebook

and Twitter, an email listserv, the NC NAACP website, and through the distribution of flyers and

handouts. It is reported that tens of thousands participated in the march although there is no data

to verify the numbers. Organizers rallied the march around several social demands: 1) Voting

Rights, 2) Labor Rights, 3) Education Equality, 4) Healthcare for All, 5) Equal Protection Under

the Law, and 6) Criminal Justice Reform. Interestingly, these demands are almost synonymous

with the demands of organizers and protesters during the Civil Rights Movement.

Figure 1: A picture of the crowd participating in the Moral Monday March on

Raleigh, Feb. 14, 2015

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Methodology

I seek to understand which black churches in North Carolina are actively participating in the

Moral Monday Movement by observing the social media activity, website and newsletter activity

of four churches in Raleigh and four churches in Durham, North Carolina. Raleigh and Durham

were chosen because Raleigh is the capital of North Carolina, and both Raleigh and Durham are

so close in proximity that the area they comprise is often referred to as the Raleigh-Durham area.

Of the eight predominantly black-attended churches, I have attempted to interview senior leaders

from four of the churches in an effort to discover how black churches in North Carolina are

responding to the Moral Monday Movement. For all eight churches, I will observe their

interactions with Moral Mondays through each church’s website, social media outlets,

newsletters, and announcement portals. This will be done prior to doing the interviews in order

to provide me with background information about the social justice activity of each church.

Below is a list of the churches I will be observing for this study:

1. The Upper Room Church of God in Christ, Raleigh, N.C., Senior Pastor, Dr. Patrick L.

Wooden

2. Elevation Baptist Church, Knightdale, N.C., Senior Pastor, T.L. Carmichael, Sr.

3. First Baptist Church, Raleigh, N.C., Senior Pastor, Dr. Dumas A. Harshaw, Jr.

4. Restoration Church, Raleigh, N.C., Senior Pastor, James A. Rowland

5. World Overcomers Christian Church (WOCC), Durham, N.C., Senior Pastor, Andy

Thompson

6. St. Mark A.M.E. Zion Church, Durham, N.C. Senior Pastor, Dr. G. Ray Coleman

7. Bethel Family Worship Center, Durham, N.C., Senior Pastor, Bishop George G. Bloomer

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8. White Rock Baptist Church, Durham, N.C., Senior Pastor, Dr. Reginald Van Stephens

Each church that I chose represents different denominations and demographics. I chose

the churches somewhat randomly, but there were some criteria that I maintained. These criteria

are as follows: historical significance, denomination variation, and impact. The critieria of a

majority membership made up of black parishioners was implied and understood.

Church Historical Significance

I wanted to include several black historical churches in the Raleigh-Durham area within

my research, and due to my personal readings on North Carolina’s participation in the Civil

Rights Movement, several churches were familiar to me only through name. One of those

churches was First Baptist Church, Raleigh. According to its website, First Baptist Church,

Raleigh is one of the oldest black churches in North Carolina established in 1812 with 14 slaves

of African descent and 9 freedmen of European descent (website).

Another church that I observed was White Rock Baptist Church. According to the

church’s website, White Rock was established in Durham, in 1866 and applauds its current

pastor, Dr. Reginald Van Stephens, for “maintaining White Rock’s historic role in Durham and

North Carolina as a center for political activism, social causes and a home for mass meetings in

the African American community” (website). The church also posted historical pictures of Dr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. preaching in its church in the early 60’s.

Denomination Variance

Choosing churches that represented traditional denominations such as Baptist,

Methodists, and COGIC (Church of God In Christ) was also important to me. Given the fact that

traditional denominations were critical to the Civil Rights Movement of the 50’s and 60’s, I

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wanted to find out if this was still the case. This led to the selection of St. Mark A.M.E. Zion,

Durham and Upper Room Church of God In Christ, Raleigh.

Another selection marker that I used was to identify non-denominational churches

because these churches are often young in terms of establishment, and attract younger and larger

crowds. For example World Overcomers in Durham was started in 2003 and according to its

website, “has close to 10,000 members-with nearly half of the membership being men”

(website). Restoration Church in Raleigh does not list its establishment date on its website but it

does explain to visitors that the church “maintains a conservative theological position in a non-

traditional way” (website).

Bethel Family Worship Center in Durham was established in 1996 and the church’s

pastor, Bishop George Bloomer has oversight of 83 churches nationally and internationally.

Upper Room Church of God In Christ, Raleigh, came to prominence during the second election

campaign of President Barack Obama when Upper Room’s senior pastor, Bishop Patrick L.

Wooden, Sr., became of North Carolina’s most outspoken pastors against President Obama’s

support of gay marriage and helped lead North Carolina’s successful campaign in 2012 to outlaw

gay marriage in the state (Dade, 2012).

Impact

One other criteria that I used to select churches was impact. By impact, I mean the

church’s reach within the community. As mentioned earlier, World Overcomers Christian

Center in Durham reaches close to 10,000 members. Elevation Baptist Church, according to

their website, is working on a 101-acre community called “Elevation Village” (website). Bethel

Family Worship Center’s pastor, Bishop George Bloomer host a weekly television show on the

popular television Christian station, the Word Network, called “Rejoice in the Word.”

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Unintentionally, all of the churches chosen were led by male senior pastors. At a later

date, I would like to include female-led churches within the study to identify similarities and

differences to their attitudes and perceptions of the Moral Monday movement. Also, in terms of

distance, the eight churches are relatively close in proximity with each other with the greatest

distance between any two churches being only 35 miles.

To learn more about each church’s social identity and whether I would be able to identify

any references, mentioning or allusions to the Moral Monday movement, I focused on three

tools: 1) Church Websites 2) Social Media, and 3) Electronic Newsletters/Listservs. Every

single church has a public website, but each church differed in their social media presence, and

access to electronic newsletters and listservs. Below is a breakdown of each church’s online

scope:

Name of

Church

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Blog

YouTube

Listserv

News-

letter

Upper

Room

Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No

Elevation

Baptist

Yes Yes No No No No No Yes

First

Baptist

Yes No No No No No No

Restoration Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No

World

Overcomers

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

St. Mark

A.M.E.

Zion

Yes

No

No

No

Yes

No

No

Bethel

Family

Christian

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

White Rock

Baptist

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

Yes

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Interestingly, no church among the eight churches provided a public account for every

single social media site listed, although some offered other social media outlets such as LinkedIn

and Vimeo. It is also interesting that as one would expect, the more traditional churches (First

Baptist, St. Mark A.M.E. Zion, and White Rock Baptist) had the least social media offerings.

However, First Baptist, St. Mark, and White Rock, also had the most detailed historical

background on their websites. These findings will be discussed further in the results section.

Ultimately, I perused each church’s website, and social media site from January 1, 2015

to February 14, 2015, the day of the Moral Monday’s march on Raleigh. When possible, I also

signed up for the church’s listserv to stay abreast of any information that mentioned Moral

Mondays, Rev. William Barber, or social justice in general. In terms of YouTube, I attempted to

identify Sunday messages from Sunday, February 8 or Sunday February 15 mentioned Moral

Mondays. Several churches offered live stream feeds of their Sunday morning services, but

since it was impossible to watch each church’s service simultaneously, I resorted to either using

the archive messages or YouTube messages. My main focus was identifying any type of support

through social media language, church website announcements, or direct advertisement of the

Moral Monday march in Raleigh, N.C. on February 14, a march that drew tens of thousands but

received little media attention from any of the local television networks.

After a careful review of each church’s website, and social media outlets, I selected four

senior pastors from four churches to interview: Dr. Dumas A. Harshaw Jr., First Baptist Raleigh,

Bishop Patrick L. Wooden Sr., Upper Room, Raleigh, Pastor Andy Thompson, World

Overcomers, Durham, and Dr. Reginald Van Stephens, White Rock Baptist, Durham. Included

in the appendix is a copy of the interview questions. As of today, I have only completed one

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interview with Dr. Harshaw of First Baptist Raleigh Church. I have a tentative interview

scheduled with Bishop Wooden who is traveling. Pastor Andy Thompson was unavailable, and

his assistant pastor relayed to me that World Overcomers does not get involved with political

disputes and chooses to quietly engage in community outreach. Dr. Van Stephens who is an

adjunct professor at Shaw University, asked to wait until after the semester was over to be

interviewed. The other four churches have been contacted via email and phone, but none of

them have returned my calls or replied to emails. I will expound upon this further during the

discussion.

Results

To put it bluntly, of the eight churches that I researched, only one, St. Mark A.M.E. Zion

made any references to the Moral Monday movements and this reference was somewhat implied

rather than overtly stated. The reference was simply a picture on St. Mark’s website of Rev.

William Barber speaking from the pulpit. I do not know when the picture was taken or how long

it has been on the website, and admittedly it is risky to suggest that the picture of Rev. Barber

implies support with the Moral Monday movement. Yet, in terms of the broader definition of

Moral Monday references I would like to offer that the picture is a type of visual reference of

Moral Mondays at best. Since church websites post and repost dates are difficult to deduce

through mere observation, the picture of Moral Monday’s spiritual and official leader, Rev.

Barber, on St. Mark’s church website does fall within the January 1 to February 14 window, and

is still on the website as of today.

As mentioned earlier, no other church mentioned or referenced Moral Mondays, Rev.

Barber, or the march that occurred on February 14th. Moreover, none of the churches alluded to

any type of social justice references barring a few churches that mentioned Dr. Martin Luther

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King’s holiday. Admittedly, equating the mentioning of Dr. Martin Luther King’s holiday as a

reference to social justice is difficult to prove since all types of businesses and organizations

refer to Dr. King’s official holiday. One may be curious as to what type of information was

projected to Internet audiences and to answer that I will focus on each technical outlet, website,

social media outlets, listservs, separately.

Each church’s website provided a plethora of information for first-time visitors such as

myself. Although the style and design of each website was different, ranging from cutting edge

to ultra conservative, the content of each website remained relatively similar. From each church,

one can discover information about the church, the church’s leadership, ministry opportunities,

sermon access, financial support opportunities, and the church’s beliefs. As mentioned earlier,

the traditional and older churches provided the most comprehensive history of the church citing

pivotal movements such as White Rock Baptist hosting Dr. Martin Luther King in 1960

(website). Both White Rock and First Baptist provided listings of former pastors throughout

their history emphasizing the legacy of each former pastor and keeping the emphasis on the

church itself. The more contemporary churches such as Elevation Baptist Church, World

Overcomers, Restoration, Bethel Family Worship Center, and Upper Room, took a different

approach to the church’s history. Rather than provide information on the history of the church,

the history sections were replaced with descriptions about the senior pastor and either his tenure

at the church or his appointment to the church.

As mentioned earlier, each church varied in their usage of social media outlets to

represent their churches, but the actual messages relayed via social media were almost

unanimous. The messages were either recapitulations of the most recent sermon, notifications

about upcoming events, and quotes of encouragement. For example the Upper Room Church of

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God in Christ posted on their Facebook page on February 12 a flyer reminding viewers to

“experience “TNT”, Thursday Night Teaching”. Bethel Family Worship Center’s social media

outlets are actually the accounts of their pastor and founder, Bishop George Bloomer. On Feb.

12, he tweeted “Yesterday was a great day and today will be even better. We’re talking

Marriage at 7:30 p.m.” St. Mark A.M.E. Zion posted on Facebook on Feb. 9th that the “St. Mark

Quasquicentennial History Book can be purchased during office hours from the Church Office.”

Although two churches offered the opportunity to sign up for the church’s newsletter to

be emailed to your personal email account, only one church, Bethel Family Worship Center,

actually sent any information after I signed up for the service. Upon joining Bethel’s listserv, I

immediately begin receiving flyers and notifications via email regarding the preaching itinerary

of Bishop Bloomer. Two other churches, Elevation Baptist and White Rock Baptist, provided

downloadable copies of their monthly newsletter. Although the newsletters did not focus on

Moral Mondays, the newsletter provide an in-depth look into both churches weekly and monthly

activities. White Rock Baptist’s February newsletter featured articles ranging from learning how

to share your faith, the importance of MLK Day, and listed members who celebrated birthdays in

February (see appendix for example). Elevation Baptist’s February newsletter featured articles

on fasting, a letter from the senior pastor, monthly events occurring at the church, and an article

on learning how to pray.

Interview

Because only one interview has been completed, further information will be included

once the other three interviews are conducted. However, I would like to share a few insights that

I have already discovered through my interview with the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church in

Raleigh, N.C., Dr. Dumas A. Harshaw, Jr. The most surprising revelation that I discovered

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during my interview with Dr. Harshaw is that contrary to the church’s website presentation, First

Baptist has been an integral part of the Moral Monday Movement, even hosting the initial

meetings when the Moral Monday Movement began in 2012. Dr. Harshaw also quickly

elaborated on his personal relationship with Rev. Barber, and mentioned that Dr. Barber had

spoken several times at First Baptist. Furthermore, Dr. Harshaw informed me that Dr. Martin

Luther King Jr, had spoken at First Baptist twice, and Coretta Scott King had also spoken at First

Baptist. Early on in the interview it was evident that First Baptist was no novice as it related to

social justice, and was not shy in supporting in social justice initiatives. Dr. Harshaw explained

some of First Baptist’s social justice history:

“Dr. Charles Ward [one of the most prominent former pastors of First Baptist] was a

friend of Martin Luther King Sr., and was considered the “Martin Luther King” of North

Carolina. The church has always had a history of involvement with the NAACP and

pulpit exchanging with other white churches. I have tried to continue that in my own

way.”

Dr. Harshaw describe one of the ways he continues that, by volunteering to tell me that First

Baptist supported the Moral Monday Movement with its resources. He went on to emphasize

how he tries to teach the congregation of First Baptist that they must be engaged and they can’t

be “isolated, class-oriented sororities and fraternities for Jesus and just stay within the walls of

this great historic church. I try to model that, but everyone is at a different level of what that

means to them.”

As I mentioned earlier, Dr. Harshaw’s knowledge of and participation in the Moral

Monday Movement was quite a surprise seeing that the website revealed no indications that First

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Baptist was so socially conscious suggesting that my observations of other churches researched

for this study may contradict the information I gather through interviews.

Theory

Drawing from social movement literature and black church studies literature, I use new

social movement theory focusing primarily on collective identity, and resource mobilization

theory to observe why black churches are participating or not participating in the Moral Monday

movement. Because I am focusing on whether black churches are actors within the movement

and not whether Moral Mondays would be considered a social movement, I am admitting that I

believe the Moral Movements that have been occurring since 2012 are indeed a legitimate social

movement. As Staggenborg suggests, there are various definitions of social movements and “the

different emphases are not necessarily incompatible, and their usefulness depends in part on the

nature of the movement being studied” (p. 9).

Since, I am most interested in how black churches engage with the Moral Monday

Movement I think it is best to focus on the notion of collective identity. Relying heavily on the

research of Mellucci, collective identity, according to Fominaya, is “involves cognitive

definitions about ends, means and the field of action; this process is given voice through a

common language, and enacted through a set of rituals, practices, and cultural artefacts” (p. 3).

Fominaya continues by emphasizing the importance of the actors developing a sense of

connectedness that is both emotional and active (2010). With respect to my study, I am

interested in understanding why black churches in the Raleigh-Durham area have or have not

developed a collective identity towards the Moral Monday Movement. First Baptist Church of

Raleigh and the interview I conducted provides some theoretical insight into this question.

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Based on my interview with Dr. Harshaw it is evident that First Baptist Church has

historically developed a framework for collective action to take place. From the pastoral

connections to Dr. Martin Luther King Sr. and Jr., to the long-standing relationship with the

NAACP, the framework was in place for First Baptist to easily connect and participate in the

Moral Monday Movement. On the contrary, as deduced from World Overcomer’s terse

statement on the Moral Monday Movement and its decision to “quietly serve the community

through outreach,” it can be assumed that the framework and collective identity with the Moral

Monday Movement is absent. Moreover, World Overcomers in Durham, North Carolina is only

12 years old compared to First Baptist which has been in existence for over 200 years. Perhaps

World Overcomers has not developed space for social movement participation because it is still

developing its identity and culture. Pastor Andy Thompson, the senior pastor of World

Overcomers, has been in the ministry for 25 years while the senior pastor of First Baptist (who

refers to himself as a child of the 60’s) has been in ministry for 45 years. The age of the

congregants of World Overcomers as compared to First Baptist most likely also contributes to

the level of involvement in the Moral Monday Movement. The demographics will have to be

researched more closely, although Dr. Harshaw revealed his congregation is primarily made up

of second and third generation members who have climbed the socioeconomic ladder. I am

uncertain about the demographics of World Overcomers, but knowing several people who are

members of the church, the congregation has a very youthful feel to it.

Discussion and Challenges

In general, it is too early to make any conclusions or discuss implications of this study

until more interviews are completed, however I do want to make some comments on information

I have learned regarding during my times of observation. As a first timer, with little or no prior

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experience with any of the churches I selected for the study, I learned that the church’s website

and social media presence plays a huge role in how an outsider views the church. Some

churches did not update their social media accounts frequently, others utilized website programs

that were outdated and had pages full of code rather than pictures and print. It was also

interesting to observe how some church websites were church-centered while others were very

pastor-centered. The same can be said of the churches social media accounts as some reflected

the church’s presence while most reflected the pastor’s presence.

However different and nuanced the eight churches were in their website and social media

presentations, my interview with Dr. Harshaw at First Baptist reminds me that few assumptions

can be made about these churches social justice position, particularly as it relates to Moral

Mondays in North Carolina. My role for the rest of the interviews that I will conduct is to keep

an open mind. I also want to include in my interview questions a question about the make-up of

the churches websites and social media presence. It could be that the webmaster and social

media coordinator and the senior pastor are on different pages and the messages being presented

online are different than the messages that the senior pastor would like presented.

In terms of research challenges, the greatest obstacle was attaining actual interviews. I

assumed that I contacted each church early enough (contact begin at the end of February) to

conduct interviews prior to May, but emails and phone calls have been virtually ignored from all

eight churches besides three. Of those three, I used a connection that I had at one church, World

Overcomers, who helped me bypass the administration and voice mails of the church staff so I

could receive a response to my interview request. I emailed the senior pastor’s personal church

emails as well as utilized the email accounts that were listed on the “contact” page of the

churches websites. Unfortunately, I received very few responses.

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I contribute the lack of responses to a number of things. First, I had no connections with

any of the ministries except one so I did not have a voice to validate my interview requests.

Secondly, I think the subject matter of my interview request was offensive and threatening to

some of the churches. Because I did not want to waste the administrator’s or pastor’s time, I was

very clear that I was a graduate student who was studying the Moral Monday Movement and the

Black Church’s Involvement. I believe I was too transparent and perhaps should have avoided

the Moral Monday verbiage altogether.

In conclusion, I began this study with a simple question in mind. Is the Moral Monday

Movement in North Carolina re-igniting the Black Church’s participation in overt social justice

activity, and which churches are participating? Obviously, this study is very limited in its scope

seeing that I have chosen only eight churches, and of those eight churches I have conducted only

one interview. Yet, I do believe the initial findings suggest that the Moral Monday Movement is

not necessarily bringing in “new converts” to its movement, but is relying on the proven

churches that have a history of supporting social justice reform. I look forward to continuing my

initial research and developing my research into a larger study once I get accepted into graduate

school.

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References

Bethel Family Worship Center. (http://bethelfamily.org/index.php?)

Dade, Corey. 2012. “Blacks, Gays and the Church: A Complex Relationship,” NPR, May 2012.

Retrieved May 5, 2015 (http://www.npr.org/2012/05/22/153282066/blacks-gays-and-the-

church-a-complex-relationship)

Dubois, W.E.B. 1898. Some Efforts of American Negroes for Their Own Social Betterment.

Atlanta: Atlanta University Press.

Elevation Baptist Church. (www.elevationbaptist.org)

First Baptist Church Raleigh. (http://www.raleighfirstbaptist.org/home.html)

Frazier, E. Franklin. 1963. The Negro Church in America. New York: University of Liverpool.

Fominaya, Cristina Flesher. 2010. “Collective Identity in Social Movements: Central

Concepts and Debates,” Sociology Compass 4(6): 393-404.

Harris, Frederick C. 1999. Something Within. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Lincoln, C. Eric. 1974. The Black Church Since Frazier. New York. Schocken Books.

Morris, Aldon. 1984. The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement. New York: The Free Press.

Personal Interview with Dr. Dumas Harshaw, Jr. April 28, 2015

Restoration Church. (http://rccraleigh.org/)

St. Mark A.M.E. Zion Church (http://stmarkamezdurham.org/)

Staggenborg, Suzanne. 2011. Social Movements. New York: Oxford University Press.

Upper Room Church of God in Christ. (http://upperroomgospel.org/index.php)

White Rock Baptist Church. (http://www.whiterockbaptistchurch.org/)

World Overcomers Christian Church. (http://www.woccrtp.com/)

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Appendix I

Interview Questions

Thank you for agreeing to answer some questions. Let me share a little about myself before we

begin. I am a graduate student at ECU pursuing a Masters in Sociology, concentrating in Social

Movements. I am also an ordained minister and daughter of a pastor, Rev. Jimmy Melvin, St.

John’s A.M.E. Zion, White Lake, N.C. As a preacher’s daughter, I understand how full your

weekly calendar can be and I thank you for sharing some of your time with me.

1. How long have you been a pastor, and how long have you pastored at First Baptist? (45

years in the Gospel, 32 as a pastor) (I read your bio)

2. What is one of your greatest joys of being a pastor?

3. What is one of your greatest challenges?

4. How important is social justice or social equality to you, personally?

5. Do you consider the pursuit of social justice to be an integral part of your church’s

mission?

6. Do you believe the church should encourage and empower members to participate in

opposing social injustice and inequality, or should the church itself be formally or

directly involved in opposing social injustice and inequality?

7. Are you aware of the Moral Monday Movement occurring in North Carolina (led by the

NAACP and Rev. William H. Barber)? What would you say is the Moral Monday

Movement all about?

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8. Have you personally participated in the Moral Monday Movement in any way? By

participation I mean (giving financial funds, marching, writing, providing resources, etc.)

If yes, probe to get more detail about what they did. (Last Moral Monday was Feb. 14,

“Day of Love”)

9. Has the church has officially given financially, participated in marches, writing, or

providing resources to support Moral Mondays?

10. How involved would you speculate that your staff is in the Moral Monday movement?

What about your parishioners?

11. Rev. William H. Barbour is both the President of NC’s NAACP and Senior Pastor of

Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, N.C. These are two responsibility-laden

positions. Do you think a pastor can wear both hats? As President of the NC-NAACP

and Pastor of Greenleaf, which calling deserves a higher priority if any?

12. How do you think the Black Church can oppose social injustices such as the tax cuts in

N.C. (Medicaid, unemployment, public school funding) or the shootings of multiple

unarmed black men and women?

13. Is there anything else you would like to share about Moral Mondays or social justice in

general?

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