“Awaken us to godly sorrow for the part we have had in it, either by the things we have done, or by those we have left undone.”
—Harrison Ray Anderson, 1941

As Fourth Church and the wider country entered the post-World War II era, it was soon clear a time of transformational change had begun: explosive growth from consumer spending transformed the United States into an economic powerhouse, the availability of cheap cars and lending led to the rapid rise of the suburbs, and a sudden surge in the birthrate (the Baby Boomers) helped create the image of a 1950s “nuclear family” as an ideal of American life.

Then-Republican presidential nominee Dwight Eisenhower poses at the Delaware exit with Pastor Harrison Ray Anderson after worship on July 6, 1952. Second from left is future First Lady Mamie Eisenhower; at right is Ike’s brother Milton.

This economic “boom,” however, was certainly not experienced by all. Women who had joined in the war effort soon found themselves out of jobs and offices, expected to resume roles as mothers and homemakers. Black soldiers had been asked to fight on the front lines, only to be pushed to the backs of buses, denied the opportunity to benefit as other service members had. The 1944 G.I. Bill is one instructive example of how this occurred: the bill provided returning veterans with funding to attend college and offered them low-interest mortgages for new homes, along with other benefits. By the letter of the law these benefits were not explicitly denied to Black service members, but in practice an estimated 1.2 million Black World War II veterans were indeed denied those same benefits through redlining—compounded by “separate but equal” Jim Crow laws that were anything but.

There is no succinct way to capture the vast and varied factors throughout the 1950s that eventually helped to spark the civil rights movement and women’s movement, though the horrific murder of Emmett Till and acquittal of his killers in 1955 and the publication of The Second Sex in 1953 are often cited as turning points. Regardless, it was clear that a new day for America was needed, and as these nascent movements began to build, one would have hoped that Fourth Church in the 1950s could have been a leader in supporting and championing them. Disappointingly, the opposite was true: Fourth Church, particularly under its pastor Harrison Ray Anderson, would prove quite slow to embrace the growing calls for equality and equity.

Although the PC(USA) had been ordaining women as deacons and elders since 1930, there were no women serving on any of the Fourth Church boards until the very tail end of Anderson’s tenure in 1958, when three women were finally elected to the Board of Deacons. Even more shockingly, it wasn’t until 1972 that the first woman would be elected to Session as an elder—four decades after other churches in the denomination had begun to do so.

This reticence to involve women in leadership cannot be attributed to Harrison Ray Anderson alone, but comments made by those he worked with indicate he was a significant piece of the opposition. As one elder damningly put it, “To put women on the board was discussed. I don’t think Dr. Anderson was comfortable with it because he felt women had their place.” In addition, as the issue of ordaining women as ministers began to be debated nationally in the 1950s, a female member of Fourth Church’s staff wrote for a national publication an infamous article entitled “Why I Do Not Want to Be Ordained,” an article that had Anderson’s full approval.

Equally upsetting was Fourth Church’s lack of engagement with the civil rights movement during Anderson’s tenure, particularly when juxtaposed with other leaders in the PC(USA) at the time. In 1951, Harrison Ray Anderson was elected as the Moderator of the General Assembly—the same year that Eugene Carson Blake was elected as Stated Clerk (a position that essentially serves as the voice of the denomination, even though it reports to the Moderator—it’s confusing). Blake would become an outspoken advocate of the civil rights movement, eventually helping to organize the 1963 March on Washington and being arrested in Baltimore for trying to desegregate a park. Anderson largely avoided the subject entirely, reminiscent of John Timothy Stone’s passive silence in the wake of the 1919 Race Riots.

Dr. Anderson’s counterpart in the social issues of the time, civil-rights advocate Eugene Carson Blake. One would not expect to see the word “Presbyterian” on the cover of Time magazine today, but back in the 1950s and early 1960s mainline Protestantism played a much larger role in the national conversation.

Harrison Ray Anderson Jr. would later reflect that his father felt that Blake was “prostituting the ministry to social causes” and that he “resented attempts to integrate Fourth Church because it was cause-oriented rather than inspired by the gospel.” In his book The Gold Coast Church and the Ghetto, James Wellman raises the obvious counterpoint: the civil rights movement was deeply inspired by the gospel, with numerous clergy as prominent leaders and a deep grounding in the biblical text. Anderson merely failed to see it.

Once beneficial, Anderson’s trademark intransigence was increasingly detracting from Fourth Church’s ability to witness to the wider culture. Perhaps recognizing that he could no longer hold the waves of change at bay—or perhaps discerning the Spirit was calling the church in a new direction—Anderson announced in December 1960 that he would be retiring the following September after a thirty-three-year tenure at Fourth Church. In his final letter to the congregation, he wisely reflected, “Finally, a word to you about this good man who is to be your new pastor. Be ready to cooperate in what the future holds for the church. There will be changes, of course, for this is a sign of life. Let his coming as a new minister be a call to each of you to be a new minister.”

Changes were indeed coming in the 1960s, both inside and outside the church, and the next chapter will examine how the new pastor, Elam Davies, helped Fourth Church navigate new roles and responsibilities as a prominent downtown church.

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