Stuart Sprague collection of Baptist Students Concerned protest material, 1966-2025 (bulk: 1968-1970)
Baptist Students Concerned (1968-1970) was a progressive student group formed by North Carolina Baptist Student Union members to attend the Southern Baptist Convention annual meetings 1968 through 1970 to address issues of racism, poverty, and war. Stuart Sprague, Ph.D. (1947- ) played a key role in the activities of Baptist Students Concerned, collected and created the documentary history of the group, and wrote and collected writings by others about the group's activities. This collection primarily documents the formation and activity of Baptist Students Concerned and the trajectory of the Southern Baptist Convention through correspondence, conference material, news reports and clippings, typescript and manuscript documents, and a photograph. There are also National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion records, including annual meeting programs and reports.
Biographical and Historical Note
Stuart Sprague, Ph.D. (1947- ) was a student protester in Baptist Students Concerned, a progressive student group, and played a crucial role in their efforts at the 1968, 1969, and 1970 Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meetings. Importantly, Sprague collected and retained the material evidence of these activities and consulted this material for his own research (see Box 2, Folder 5; Digital Folder MS1009-001).
In 1968, Baptist Students Concerned was formed by active Baptist Student Union members throughout North Carolina and the Southeast who were "frustrated that more had not been done by the SBC to address the social issues exploding on the national scene" (Sprague, 2025b). In early 1968, University of North Carolina student, Terry Nichols, and Director of the Baptist Student Union, Jack Halsell, began discussing issues of racism, poverty, and war, meeting with students throughout the North Carolina network to broaden the discussion. The group collectively decided to send members to the 1968 SBC annual meeting in Houston, Texas to address their shared concerns. The student protesters were elected by their own local Baptist churches to attend the SBC annual meeting as "messengers," which both showed a commitment to the denomination by attending on behalf of their own Baptist churches, and allowed the students annual meeting voting privileges as delegates of a larger constituency. They planned to wear coats, ties, and dresses out of respect and informed the Houston Chief of Police of their plans to peacefully protest during the annual meeting on the sidewalk near the entrance to the convention center.
Leading up to the 1968 SBC annual meeting, as news of the students' plans spread throughout SBC leadership, a proposed resolution emerged through the Baptist press to address the "Crisis in Our Nation" at the meeting. The students also received encouraging feedback from SBC Nashville representatives including Foy Valentine, W.C. Fields, W.O. Thomason,Porter Routh signifying a progressive presence within the SBC. Notably, Fields arranged a press conference, and Valentine arranged a well-attended meeting in which the students spoke of their concerns to a group of messengers. Accompanied by Vanderbilt University student, Tom Graves, and North Carolina Baptist Student Union denominational staff members, Jim Greene, Randy Mishoe, and Bob Clyde, the students mounted what they later determined to be a successful protest. After the 1968 SBC annual meeting, Baptist Students Concerned remained active and featured regularly in the Baptist press (see Box 1, Folder 5) and pursued social action projects in North Carolina (see Box 1, Folder 6). The students' success in 1968 led a group of professors and pastors to form the E. Y. Mullins Fellowship, an organization dedicated to seeking progressive change in the SBC. They and the students hosted a meeting prior to the 1969 annual meeting.
Leading up to the 1969 SBC annual meeting, the Southern Baptist Pastor's Conference added a forum to their annual meeting program dedicated to the issues raised by Baptist Students Concerned members at the 1968 SBC annual meeting, inviting Tom Graves and Stuart Sprague to join the panel as special guests. The group considered this an encouraging sign that the perceived conservatism of the Pastors' Conference appeared to be open to progressive ideas. However, "[the] panelists were divided in their support of the students" and Graves and Sprague observed that "there was much work to be done in the realm of social justice with the SBC" (Sprague, 2025a).
At the 1969 SBC annual meeting, the student protesters took part in a press conference (see Box 1, Folder 9) organized by SBC chief press officer, W.C. Fields, otherwise involved in similar activities from the previous year. James ("Jim") Lowder, Duke University student, presented a paper he had written for church programs for sex education, proposing a resolution to the SBC to prepare a sex education curriculum for SBC churches (see Box 1, Folder 8), which was later adopted and led to Broadman Press publishing four volumes for use in local churches in 1973. The students also created mailing lists for newsletters and financial contributions (see Box 1, Folder 10).
Between the 1969 and 1970 SBC annual meetings, the Baptist Students Concerned membership dropped due to members graduating, attending graduate school, and entering the workforce. Graves, Sprague, and David Moore, now Southern Baptist Theological Seminary students, decided to focus their fundraising and planning efforts on sending Sprague alone to the 1970 annual meeting in Denver, Colorado. Relative to the previous two years, while the Baptist Students Concerned and progressive presence was diminished, Sprague was able to vote on an important matter. This was the last SBC annual meeting attended by Baptist Students Concerned.
By 1977, the "progressive tack by the [SBC] had been permanently shut" and the Baptist Students Concerned "came up against the realities of denominational politics" (Sprague, 2025a). Despite the SBC no longer being a venue for Baptist Students Concerned, many of the students went on to pursue their vision through other avenues through their careers and through church activity.
Founded in 1972, the Association of Baptist Professors of Religion (ABPR) (now expanded to the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion, or NABPR) created a journal, Perspectives in Religious Studies, "laying a foundation of publications that continues to identify the work of the Association." Comprised of teaching scholars, mostly at Baptist-affiliated schools, the ABPR/NABPR dedicated to the "changing religious culture of the United States" (NABPR, n.d.).
Works cited:
National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion. (n.d.). About. NABPR. Retrieved August 25, 2025, from https://nabpr.org/info/
Sprague, S. (2025a, May 20). Baptist Students Concerned 1968–70 [Presentation]. Baptist History and Heritage Society Annual Meeting, Baylor University, Waco, TX
Sprague, S. (2025b, June 10). 57 years ago, student protesters were welcomed at SBC annual meeting. Baptist News Global. https://baptistnews.com/article/57-years-ago-student-protesters-were-welcomed-at-sbc-annual-meeting/
Collection Overview
This collection documents the Baptist Students Concerned protests at the 1968, 1969, and 1970 Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meetings; the activities of Baptist Student Union of North Carolina members and the SBC from 1966 through 1998 more broadly; and accounts of these events written by former Baptist Students Concerned members, written circa 2025.
The material in this collection was collected and created by Stuart Sprague, a key figure in the Baptist Students Concerned group. The contents of the folders remain, for the most part, in Sprague's original order and are arranged chronologically. Since this is a relatively small collection, the folders have not been grouped into series, and those interested in progressive Baptist history during the Civil Rights era, student protests, and the SBC from circa 1968 to 1970 should consider consulting the entirety of this collection.
The collection includes publications (journals, newsletters, and book) that provide context for the formation of the Baptist Students Concerned student protest group (see Box 1, Folders 1-2; Box 2, Folder 2); documentation created by the student group outlining their scope and purpose (see Box 1, Folder 3); and press coverage (clippings, journals) of the student group and the impact of the progressive Baptist movement on the SBC more generally (see Box 1, Folders 4-8; Box 2, Folder 1). Also included is a photograph of Baptist Students Concerned members at a press conference at the 1969 SBC annual meeting (Box 1, Folder 9), mailing lists (see Box 1, Folder 10), and correspondence between progressive Baptist individuals and organizations (see Box 1, Folders 11-12). There are also interviews and writings by members of Baptist Students Concerned regarding their activities circa 1968-1970, including accounts contributed by Eric Blackwell, Joe Coker, Tom Graves, Bob Harris, Marie Moorefield Fleischer, Susan Sprague, and Stuart Sprague (see Box 2, Folders 4-5; and Digital Folder MS1009-001).
Also included are organizational records (annual meeting programs, reports, journals) and supporting documentation of the Association of Baptist Professors of Religion (1978-1981) and the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion (1981-1993) (see Box 2, Folder 3).
Controlled Access Headings
Corporate Names
- Baptist Student Union
- National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion
- Southern Baptist Convention
Genres
- Correspondence
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Reports
Subjects
Administrative Information
- Publication Information
- Processed by Sam Sfirri and Berley Camelien, 2025 August 28
- Conditions Governing Access
- Collection is open for research.
- Conditions Governing Use
- The nature of the WFU Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The Archives and Special Collections of ZSR Library claims only physical ownership of most materials. The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to the U.S. Copyright Law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
- Preferred Citation
- Stuart Sprague collection of Baptist Students Concerned protest material (MS 1009), Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.