The Omaha guide., 1940-12-14
MINISTER'S
CHALLENGE
POWELL TO
PRODUCE
FACTS
DECRY N. YORK PREACHERS
SERMON DISPARAGING MEM.
DRY OF DEAD MAN; 9

- ~ . VI liz GA2LAA4NQ
board of the National Baptist
Convention, Inc, meeting here last
Wednesday for the first time since
the death of DR.. L. K. Williams,
president of the great religious or
ganization, as its members discus
sed the posthumous attack made
upon their leader in a sermon re-
ported preached in New York city
by the Rev. A. Clayton Powell, Jr.,
pastor of Abyssinian Baptist
Church of that city. Rev. Powell
was charged with unethical cond-
uct by various ministers present
VINO had read the story of his al
legged incorporate uterance in an
eastern newspaper.
The executive board adopted a
set of resolutions extolling the
work and character of DR.. Will
Jams and expressing their unbound
ed confidence in the man and shCir
reverence of his memory. At the
same time the group condemned
in scorching language the views
alleged to have been expressed by
Powell when, in a pulpit address,
he is charged with seeking to link
the name of DIR. Williams with the
unsolved murder of E. ID. Piarson,
a former auditor for the National
Baptist Publishing board of Nash
vile who was slain a dozen years
ago as he travelled through lndi-
ana to make a report to superior
officers. Powell is charged with
preaching a sensational sermon
in which he struck at the dead
mans memory by innuendo and in
which he dragged the gruesonle
details of the unexplained tragedy
forth in detail as he sought to link
the name of his own denominat-
ions departed chieftain to the ev-
ent.
Bitter condemnation of Rev.
Powell has been voiced by both
ministers and laymen, not alone in
Louisville but in Chicago and his
own city of New York as well as
throughout the country where
ever the text of this attack had
penetrated.
In New York City where the
Baptist Minister'S conference held
p memorial service for DIR. Will
Jams last Monday, leading pastors
though not calling his name,
branded the young preacher as
''unchristian" and a Sensation
seeker. Rev. o. Clay Maxwell,
pastor of Mount Olive Baptist
Church and an officer in the Ma
tional Baptist conventions said
that Powell's alleged charges were
without any foundation in fact"
and "unchristian and unwise". The
conference then went on record as
endorsing DIR. Williams life and
work. Observers expect the con-
ference to demand a retraction by
the young minister. The execut-
i've board here at Louisville in
structed Atty. VIM. H Haynes, its
general counsel, to seek an explain
alton of the incident and to investi
gate what appropriate action
might be taken.
Stepping across the denominat-
ionla line, DIR. George Singleton,
editor of the Christian Recorder,
official organ of the African Me-
thodist Episcopal church, charged
Rev. Powell with being a public
ity speaker" In the same demon
nation, Rev. A. Wayman Ward of
Chicago, reflecting the attitude of
the AME. ministers of that city,
said that the radical young min
ister's action as reported was
"plain low down" and expressed
the view that journalism wh,ch
played up or accepted a statement
of the sort without investigation
was equally culpable.
In Chicago, the Baptist Minis
ter's conference of Chicago and vi
entity, one of the largest local
church organizations in the coun-
try, challenged Rev. Powell to pro-
duce his facts. In a set of resolu-
tions passed last Monday. the
C. Inference went on record as fol-
lows:
"The Baptist Ministers Confer
ence of Chicago and Vicinity was
greatly shocked by an article ap-
rearing in the public press, cred
tied to Rev. A. Clayton Powell. Jr.
and attacking the memory Of the
late DR.. L. X. Williams.
1--WE do hereby invite Rev. Pow
ell to come to Chicago at the ex-
pense Of the Chicago Baptist Mir
ister's Conference to give the da-