Perkins faculty statement in support of Rev. William A. Holmes, November 1963
This document was the result of a faculty meeting called on November 27, 1963, to discuss the plight of William A. Holmes, a 1954 graduate of Perkins School of Theology who had garnered national attention in the aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. First from the pulpit of Northaven Methodist Church, Dallas, then on national television, Holmes stated that “the spirit of assassination has been with us [in Dallas] for some time.” To support his assertion, Holmes cited other local hate crimes and acts of intolerance. In Perkins School of Theology: A Centennial History, Professor emeritus Joseph L. Allen recalls:
Immediately after the television broadcast, the Holmes family began receiving threatening phone calls, and as a result, they were placed under police protection and moved to a friend’s home. The following Friday, at a specially called meeting, the Perkins faculty unanimously voted to endorse and support Holmes’s stand. In a statement he later made public, Dean Quillian said, “The issue basically is one of freedom of the pulpit and the right of a person to say what he believes without being subjected to threat and attempted intimidation.”
