Desegregation

Central Jurisdiction Study Committee.
Central Jurisdiction Speaks.
1962.

Commission on Interjurisdictional Relations.
Report and Plan of Action for the Elimination of the Central Jurisdiction.
1964.

These two publications represent the movement to desegregate The Methodist Church prior to the Uniting Conference of 1968. Integration required abolition of the Central Jurisdiction, the Black administrative judicatory created in the Methodist Church merger of 1939 for the purpose of separating African American Methodists from their European-American counterparts.

Central Jurisdiction Speaks reported the findings of a March 1962 study conference attended by two hundred leaders of the Central Jurisdiction. Their statements expressed “willingness and readiness to cooperate with all agencies of The Methodist Church that have a genuine interest in working creatively to achieve a racially undifferentiated Methodist fellowship.” Two years later a plan to eliminate the Central Jurisdiction was adopted by the 1964 General Conference of The Methodist Church. A standing ovation followed the vote.

01-CentralJurisdictionSpeaks-cover-1000.jpg 02-planofaction-frontcover-1000.jpg
Desegregation