Earl Stallings: A Durham-born minister caught between segregation and integration

Earl Stallings, born in Durham on March 20, 1916, became a Baptist minister and civil rights activist whose approach to racial integration brought praise from Martin Luther King Jr. as well as opposition from members of his own congregation.

In 1963, Stallings was among eight ministers who signed an open letter addressing the civil rights campaign. The document prompted King to write a response while jailed in Birmingham. Although Stallings had joined the group whose position King challenged, the extract identifies him as the only member of the clergy whom King praised by name in that response.

The reason was Stallings’ decision to open his church to Black worshipers. That step placed him in conflict with white members of the congregation who opposed it. One of the Black people permitted to worship there was Andrew Young, who is identified in the source as a civil rights leader.

Stallings’ position did not satisfy either side of the wider dispute. The source describes him as a target of segregationists and integrationists, reflecting the pressure faced by a minister who took a moderate position during an intense period of racial conflict. The disagreement continued after Stallings left the church. In 1970, five years after his departure, the congregation split over the issue.

The division followed a membership vote in which the church declined to admit a Black woman and her daughter. A large group left in protest and later formed Baptist Church of the Covenant.

For Durham readers, Stallings’ story begins with a local connection: the source identifies him as having been born in the city. It then follows his public life beyond Durham, tracing how a minister’s decision about who could enter and join a church became part of a national civil rights debate. His experience also illustrates how conflicts over racial inclusion could divide religious communities long after a particular leader had moved on.

The available account says Stallings left school at 16 to care for his brothers and sisters, but the supplied material ends before providing further details about his education or early life. It records that he died on February 23, 2006. Taken together, the available facts present Stallings as a Durham-born religious figure remembered for opening his congregation to Black worshipers despite resistance from within and outside the church.

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Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://web.archive.org/web/20120724071912/http://www.slobokan.com/archives/2006/02/25/rev-earl-stallings-dies/ - https://web.archive.org/web/20120301182802/http://library.cn.edu/speccoll/BaptFindAids/16%20STALLINGS-FINDING%20AID.pdf - https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-mar-21-me-stallings21-story.html Image rights Photograph description: Ludworth community centre Creator: David Hawgood. License: CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ALudworth_community_centre_-_geograph.org.uk_-_7251837.jpg. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.