The Substance of Things Hoped For: a Memoir of African-American Faith

Baptist History and Heritage, Summer-Fall, 2001 by Mark R. Wilson

By Samuel DeWitt Proctor. Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1999. 267 pp.

Experiencing the story through the eyes of those who "lived" history is perhaps the best way to understand the Civil Rights movement in the United States. Samuel DeWitt Proctor (1921-97) invites the reader into his extraordinary life through his memoirs, The Substance of Things Hoped For: A Memoir of African-American Faith.

Rightly so, Proctor does not begin his story with his birth, but starts his narrative with the deep roots of faith found in his slave-born grandmother who exhibited the character that would influence Proctor's ministry and career. An immovable fortress of faith and hope for African-American equality, and progress was instilled into Proctor at an early age by his family and faith community, creating a leader who would not tire of service.

Convinced that education was the key to progress and success for African Americans, Proctor earned degrees from Virginia Union University, Crozer Theological Seminary, and Boston University. Proctor would eventually serve as president of two universities, Virginia Union University and North Carolina A & T State University and also become pastor emeritus of the Abyssinian Baptist Church of New York City. Porter's list of accomplishments, positions, and adventures as public servant and Baptist pastor and preacher are documented well in this book.

Samuel DeWitt Proctor represents the atypical component of the Civil Rights movement. While most noted leaders struggled for freedom in the South's trenches, Proctor fought the war through many varied national leadership positions, particularly through a position in the Office of Economic Opportunity. Of this experience he states, "Our daily travails were nothing compared to the hardships endured by those being bombed, beaten, jailed.... At the same time, I resented the cynicism of the protesters who came to harass me because I was an executive of the government" (p. 121). Proctor fought the battle on two fronts: against a white culture of resistance and against a black culture that had little faith in the federal government.

The Substance of Things Hoped For is a story of hope tempered with honesty. Even when frustrated with white Protestants who "loved little Jesus in the manger and hanging on the cross" but did not love Jesus "on Wall Street, in the Congress, in city hall, and in the boardrooms" (116), Proctor was thoroughly convinced that hope remained.

But hope, Proctor reminds us, does not evolve into progress on its own without the agency of leaders. Proctor identifies a need for extraordinary African-American leadership in churches at the national level. He states, "Nationally, leadership positions in the black churches have been most honorific and ornamental, without real meaning" (p. 216).

This prophetic call for leadership was made by a leader who gave the title real meaning. Many examples of Proctor taking time and energy to counsel and direct young students to paths of progress are found in this book. Countless numbers of persons were directly affected by Proctor's genuine embrace.

Despite Proctor's death in 1997, his legacy continues to live on, particularly through the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University. His memoirs give us a glimpse into his life and character, a refreshing example of the power and blessing of faith and hope.--Reviewed by Mark R. Wilson, graduate student, History Department, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama.