Westminster Presbyterian Church, Alexandria Va

In June 2022, Westminster member Melynda Dovel Wilcox wrote a report on behalf of our Therefore Project, chronicling Westminster’s history relative to race, which has since been turned into this book. Dr. Cliff Johnson grew up in Columbus, Georgia, steeped in the racism of the Jim Crow era. But as a young pastor of a new Presbyterian church just outside the nation's capital, he felt called by his faith in the 1950s and 1960s to overcome the legacy of his upbringing. He embarked on a personal journey toward greater racial understanding, and through his deeply personal and honest sermons, invited his congregation to join him. One member of Cliff's congregation, Connie Ring, would play a key role in fighting back against Virginia's "Massive Resistance" to the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 decision declaring that separate was inherently unequal. Together, Cliff and Connie showed that it was not only possible for individuals to acknowledge and conquer their own prejudices, but also imperative for achievi