James Melvin Washington papers, circa 1970 -- 1997

James Melvin Washington (1948-1997) was an American Baptist pastor, church historian and professor, whose scholarship primarily engaged the African-American religious experience. Son of James W. Washington and Annie Moore Washington, he was born in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1948. His mother especially encouraged Washington's education and religious development, and in 1967 he was ordained to ministry at Mt. Olive Baptist Church, his home congregation. He earned a BA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1970, an MTS at Harvard Divinity School in 1972, and an M. Phil and Ph.D. from Yale Divinity School in 1975 and 1979. While a graduate student at Yale, Washington began teaching. He took an assistant professorship at Union Theological Seminary in New York, held from 1976 until his promotion to Associate Professor in 1983. In 1986, he earned tenure serving Union as full professor in Modern and American Church History. He worked at Columbia University as adjunct professor, and was visiting professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, Haverford College, Oberlin College, and Princeton University.

In 1986 he published Frustrated Fellowship: The Black Baptist Quest for Social Power. He also compiled and edited three anthologies dealing with the African-American religious experience: A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1986); I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World (1992); and Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans (1994). In addition Washington published a number of scholarly articles and before his death was preparing a major culminating work: his religious history of the Civil Rights Movement.

He held several board and leadership positions with the National Council of Churches, the American Historical Association, the American Society of Church History, the American Baptist Historical Society, and the American Academy of Religion. Among honors received were a Doctoral Fellowship from the Rockefeller Fund for Theological Education (1972-74), a National Endowment for Humanities Grant (1981), the Christopher Award (1987), and the Black Caucus of the American Library Association Honor Award (1995). Wsahington died of a stroke on May 3, 1997, and was survived by his wife, Patricia and his daughter, Ayanna.