CLERGYMAN TO RELATE STORY OF FIGHT AGAINST SEGREGATION

Dr. William G. Gillespie marched in Montgomery, Ala., with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and was among the 200,000 people at the March on Washington in 1963, the occasion of King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

But years before those historic events, the Presbyterian minister did something that remains his personal contribution to the Civil Rights movement: He resurrected a church that had chosen to close rather than integrate.

Gillespie will preach tonight at the community celebration of King's birthday. The community worship service sponsored by the Ministerial Alliance will begin at 7 o'clock at Centenary United Methodist Church, 300 N. Ellis St.

The Presbyterian Church was in the midst of great change in the 1950s, Gillespie recalled in a phone interview from St. Louis.

"The denomination had declared the Presbyterian Church would be an unsegregated church in an unsegregated society," he said.

Not everyone agreed. The all-white Cote Brilliante Presbyterian Church in St. Louis chose to close its doors rather than accept as members blacks who were moving into the community.

In 1956, Gillespie was sent from North Carolina to reorganize the church. Then only 21, Gillespie went door-to-door in the neighborhood looking for members. Six weeks later, the church reopened for 86 people of different colors, including some members of the original church who welcomed black members.

"Their wishes were being denied because the majority of the membership hadn't gone along with this," Gillespie said.

Today, his church has 700 members, all of them black. Most of the original members who were white have died, and the community now is 99 percent black, he says.

De facto segregation remains in America's churches, the 65-year-old Gillespie says, in part because few black clergy are assigned to pastor predominantly white congregations for fear a number of people would leave the church.

And many black people consider themselves unwelcome at predominantly white churches because many were turned away from white churches at the height of the Civil Rights movement, he said.

"I guess that led people to believe the only refuge they had was the black church," he said.

One way Gillespie has tried to combat the separation of the races within the churches is by sharing a mentoring program with a Jewish congregation in St. Louis. His church also has scouting programs for boys and girls and preschool, after school and senior citizens programs along with a school for people who have mental retardation.

King was able to mobilize the Civil Rights movement by negotiating away the differences between his natural audience, the churches, Gillespie says.

"The genius of the man was to be able to take people of different denominations and rally them together for our cause," he said. "Many times we black and white as well are separated by denominations. He was able to transcend that kind of thing."

That still can be done, Gillespie thinks.

"There are a lot of people who have great faith in God," he said. "Martin Luther King didn't believe his struggle could be successful without the help of God."

The Rev. William Bird Sr., a member of the Cape Girardeau Board of Education and pastor of the Greater Dimension Church of God in Christ, will be honored with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award at tonight's celebration. The Clippard Elementary School fifth- and sixth-grade choir, Ramona Robinson, Randy Smith II, Erick Harris and the Martin Luther King Community Chorus will provide music.

Other events planned to celebrate King's birthday include:

-- A common Hour program titled "King, a Man and his Dreams," to be presented by the St. Louis Black Repertory Company in Academic Auditorium Jan. 26.

-- A play titled "Can I Speak For You Brother" to be presented at 8 p.m. Feb. 4 at the University Center Ballroom by the African American Drama Company.

Martin Luther King Jr. Activities

Today

-- 8 a.m. Fifteenth annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast Buffet at the Show Me Center. Featured speaker Dwayne Bryant, founder of Inner Vision International.

-- 6 p.m. The movie "Eye on the Prize" at the University Center, followed by a candlelight vigil in King's honor.

-- 7 p.m. Dr. William G. Gillespie to speak at Martin Lutheran King Jr. worship service at Centenary United Methodist Church.

-- Through Jan. 31. A display of children's art in the University Center Program Lounge.

Jan. 26.

-- A common hour program: "King, a Man and his Dreams," presented by St. Louis Black Repertory Company at Academic Auditorium.

Feb. 4.

-- A play "Can I Speak For You Brother" at 8 p.m. at the University Center Ballroom by the African American Drama Company.