page_title: Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
section_title: Civil rights history
hierarchical_section_title: Southern Baptist Theological Seminary / Civil rights history
caption_attribution_description: English: Martin Luther King Jr. preached in Southern Seminary chapel in 1961 to a warm reception by faculty and students. King met with professors (from left to right) Henlee Barnette, Nolan Howington and Allen Graves.
context_page_description: The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is a Southern Baptist seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. It is the oldest of the six seminaries affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The seminary was founded in 1859 at Greenville, South Carolina, where it was at first lodged on the campus of Furman University. After being closed during the Civil War, it moved in 1877 to a newly built campus in downtown Louisville and later moved to its current location in the Crescent Hill neighborhood. For more than fifty years Southern has been one of the world's largest theological seminaries, with an FTE enrollment of over 3,300 students in 2015.
context_section_description: In 1951, President Duke Kimbrough McCall integrated the campus, in defiance of Kentucky state laws that established segregation at public facilities. At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Southern would become the only SBC agency to host a visit by Baptist minister and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (1961). During King's address at SBTS, he mentioned he had been to the seminary's chapel several times in the past when accompanying his mother since King's mother was an organist for the Women's Auxiliary of the National Baptist Convention.
  As a result, many donors withheld their gifts to Southern, and some demanded McCall's resignation for letting King speak in the seminary chapel.
  
  In 2018, a report was released about its connections to slavery. Controversy regarding this subject was circulated and interracial ministers coalition requested The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary to financially support nearby black colleges as a result. Despite the request, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary denied the request. As a response to the request, President R. Albert Mohler Jr. and board Chair F.Matthew Schmucker released the following statement:
  “We agree with the policy of the Southern Baptist Convention in this regard, and we do not believe that financial reparations are the appropriate response,” 
  There are claims stating that the founders owned more than 50 slaves.
caption: Martin Luther King Jr. preached in Southern Seminary chapel in 1961. King met with professors (from left to right) Henlee Barnette, Nolan Howington and Allen Graves.
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