Church-Based Community Activist Francis M. DuBose, 1922-2009Eric Smithbyline‚ Jun. 25‚ 2009As a young pastor and seminary student in the 1950s, Francis DuBose was criticized by his affluent Houston church members for baptizing Latino and poor white workers. This transformational experience led him to accept a pastorship in Breckenridge, Texas. There he responded to the new Supreme Court ruling to desegregate the schools by chairing a race relations committee that, through meetings with the local school board and the black community, was instrumental in the successful desegregation of the schools in that small town. He and other church leaders also succeeded in getting courts to release first-time youth offenders into their church-created basketball and baseball programs. |