By Charly SHELTON

In a world beset once again with daily discussions on immigrants’ rights, police brutality against minorities and a resurgence of neo-Nazism, it may be beneficial to look to those elders who fought these civil rights battles the first time around, back in the 1960s. One former local resident shared his experiences of being part of the civil rights movement in Mississippi and how it led him to become a pastor at Crescenta Valley United Methodist Church in the 1970s.

The Rev. Inman Moore has compiled his experiences into a new book, “On the Road to Civil Rights,” and recently returned to CVUMC to have a discussion with congregants about his take on the issues and how they relate to today’s political climate.

“[The Rev. Moore] was a pastor in Mississippi, and he and 20 other pastors signed a letter that was sent to the United Methodist Church of the Mississippi conference that resulted in a number of things happening,” said The Rev. Steve Poteete-Marshall, current pastor at CVUMC who welcomed Moore for the discussion. “There were some pastors who were involved in civil rights because, being in the south, in Mississippi, they were starting to take hold.”

Poteete-Marshall said that a lot of these pastors were accused of being Communists in retaliation for their support of civil rights. Many were told by their congregations to keep quiet on the issue. It was decided that they would write a letter that outlined what they felt was the racial discord in the state that needed to be addressed and to answer the charges that they were Communists.

“It’s a very simple letter really, and you may wonder what kind of problems could come of this, but a lot of the newspaper editors down there were very much separatist, not for equal rights at all,” said Poteete-Marshall. “As a result of this letter being published, several [pastors] had crosses burned on their lawns and some were locked out of their churches.”

After this letter was published on Jan. 2, 1963, the backlash was intense. As a result, some of the pastors felt it was safer for them to leave their parishes. This led Moore to meet with the Methodist Bishop of California, who happened to be in New Orleans at the time, and, after explaining the case, the so-called “Mississippi Mafia” signatory pastors were invited to come take up posts in California.

Moore left his church in Montrose, Mississippi, to come to Montrose, California, with a post in Palmdale in between.

During Moore’s visit at CVUMC a discussion about his book was held with congregants. During worship, hymns like “We Shall Overcome” were sung and the letter was read. After the service, congregants were invited to speak with Moore to ask questions.

“He’s not able to stand for sermon so much, so we had an event in the downstairs and just had him answer questions and talk about his experience in regards to his book,” Poteete-Marshall said. “Part of the reason we did [this event] was because we feel [that] now is the time to think about the civil rights of others especially with all the conversation about immigration, LGBT rights, all those sorts of things. Civil rights has been kind of thrown around as a term, but here is somebody who actually was a part of that movement and still has some reflections on what that means for today.”

For anyone interested in reading Moore’s book, “On the Road to Civil Rights,” it is available only through direct purchase from the author. Orders can be placed with the CV United Methodist Church at info@cvumc.org or by calling (818) 249-6173, and the order will be forwarded to Moore.

  Charly Shelton