Books & Sources

Seventh-day Adventists and the Civil Rights Movement

Samuel G. London, Ph. D, is the chair of the History-Political Science department at Oakwood University. This landmark book follows Black Adventists and their fight for equality. London includes several stories about Southern Missionary College from the 1950s and 1960s, including when they were ordered to desegregate by the United States Attorney General.

Mississippi Girl

This autobiography from Adventist legend, Anna Knight, contains her recollections of Graysville Academy in 1893-94. The legacy of Southern begins in Graysville in 1892.

This book is out of print, but pdfs and some Adventist libraries should have this work.

A Century of Challenge: The Story of Southern College 1892-1992

Dennis Pettibone, Ph. D, is the Adventist historian who worked tirelessly to chart Southern’s then-100 years of existence. This is the key starting point to those looking to understand the origins of Southern Adventist University.

It is thanks to Pettibone, I have been able to find some of the original Black students, professors, celebrations and more.

Interviews and research conducted by Pettibone include the ideas that the Ku Klux Klan monitored Southern’s campus, Anna Knight was the first Black person on campus, exactly when Southern desegregated, and much more!

Additional Sources

These additional works have been of great service to me throughout my search for Southern’s racial history. Most of my Ellen White quotes come from these works. Many of these quotes were used out of historical context by segregationist Adventists in the South to prolong separation, while many other statements were used to condemn the Seventh-day Adventist Church for being so slow to promote equity. I use statements from all of these works in my storytelling and research to produce a coherent story you can follow, based on real data and real stories.