TARBORO — “So at age twenty-six I prepared to assume the responsibility of the rectorship of one of North Carolina’s most unusual congregations,” is how John Shelby Spong introduces his chapter on Tarboro in his autobiography "Here I Stand."

So much depends upon how you feel about that word “unusual,” but I think it’s meant to communicate Tarboro’s strange mix of wealth and poverty, forward and backward thinking and the unusual set-up of its Episcopal churches.

Jack Spong moved here in 1957 and was the rector at St. Luke’s and Calvary Episcopal churches until he left in 1965. It was just eight years, but they were an eventful eight years in Tarboro’s history. The decisive Brown v. Board of Education case had recently passed and had yet to be dealt with, the Kennedy assassination occurred and the Civil Rights Act passed while Spong led the black and white, respectively, congregations that stare at each other across Panola Street.

Tarboro’s Reggie Moss – a member of the St. Luke’s congregation since 1961– remembers Spong “as a man ahead of his time.” Men ahead of their time often pay a price for their foresight and Moss remembers “lots of ugly things happened to Jack and his family because of his social activism.”

But Jack Spong was (and is, Spong is alive and well at 79) a man of conviction who knew that “the school system of Tarboro was radically segregated and grossly unequal.”

According to Spong, Brown v. Board of Education “represented to the white citizenry a ticking time bomb people tried to ignore.”

Spong did his part to try to end the ignorance. He tried to assure the safety of black children as they attended previously white-only schools and performed countless other acts of service to the idea of a just society in Tarboro.

Shirley Freeman lived in Tarboro and attended St. Luke’s at the time and remembers Spong with great fondness.

“He was incredibly wonderful,” Freeman says, “just an excellent person who believed deeply in social justice.” Spong baptised her children and he made it clear that the Episcopal Church belonged to everyone equally.

In his chapter on Tarboro (called “Not Popular but Right: Racial Issues and Leadership Lessons in Tarboro”) in "Here I Stand," Spong wrote, “when issues are being fought over in a changing world, those who risk rejection by embracing the future…are never finally hurt. Those who cling to the insights of a dying world or a passing prejudice are the ones who will ultimately lose both credibility and integrity.”

Spong was denounced at a rally held in a field just outside Tarboro as “public enemy No.  1 of the KKK in Edgecombe County.”

He also wrote about those white Tarboro citizens who tried as well to bring Tarboro out of the past, offering great admiration for the actions of Marian Alston Bourne, Dolores Pitt and others who saw Tarboro as one community and not a divided community.

Eventually Spong received a “Man of the Year” award in 1965 from the Tarboro Junior Chamber of Commerce and despite the hardships he noted “separating [from Tarboro] was painful for me indeed.”

In many ways Spong remains a man ahead of his time as he continues to fight for social justice both inside and outside his church. He has written 20 books and has appeared on "The Today Show," "60 Minutes," "Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher" and even "The O’Reilly Factor" (you can find a fascinating transcript of that conversation on-line).

But what does all this have to do with The Nature of Tarboro? St. Luke’s Episcopal Church recently sold land to the Tar River Land Conservancy who turned around and donated the land to the Town of Tarboro. According to Tar River Land Conservancy Executive Director Derek Halberg, there are restrictions to Tarboro’s use of the land and the Conservancy retains an oversight responsibility.

The current plan includes the idea of a nature trail running through the tract to the Tar River. My suggestion here is to name it the John Shelby Spong Nature Trail in honor of his contributions to St. Luke’s and the community in general. Without Spong’s vision of a decent future, without his determined refusal to standby and let his congregation continue to suffer the indignities of Jim Crow, much of our community would have remained left out of the changes coming to the rest of America.

I am aware of an historical anomaly that often highlights the role of white people in the struggle for black civil rights and I certainly defer to the St. Luke’s congregation in any naming of said trail, but everyone I’ve spoken to associated with St. Luke’s admires and appreciates Jack Spong’s work. It’s a moment when all of Tarboro can recognize a man who saw the future and tried to help guide Tarboro through the necessary changes. Perhaps Jack Spong might even return to Tarboro for a celebration. It’s a celebration long overdue.



The Nature of Tarboro by Brian Lampkin is a monthly column about wildlife and environmental issues specific to Tarboro and Edgecombe County.