Dr. John M. Perkins An uncommon genius and unusually committed leader

Reprint: Jan. 30–Feb. 5, 2020

Although the Rev. Dr. John Perkins is known around the world in both religious and political circles, in order to really know and understand him, one has to become acquainted with Shivers, Mendenhall, New Hebron and other such communities in rural, central Mississippi. Better still, one has to become acquainted with such places as they existed in the 1930s – 60s. It is there that John Perkins’ vision and his determined drive for human development began. It is there, among bootleggers, gamblers, and other dirtpoor laborers that his ideas germinated. Indeed, the outlook of the world that resulted in his present-day theology was built upon his witnessing and understanding of the oppression that he, his family and neighbors faced. 

Born in 1930, as he was growing up, most Black people were very poor, owning very little. He recalls that his family was so poor that his mother actually died of starvation and the lack of medical care when he was 7 months old. When he was able to go to work, he was paid only .15 cents a day, when he expected and should have gotten $15 a day. He, and other Black people who were sharecroppers, often migrated to “the Delta” to pick cotton, just to be able to sustain themselves across the fall and winter months. The plantations in the area were violent places, as were the juke joints where many Black people often went for socialization. Bootleggers, gamblers, and others who were there to make money often engaged in disputes and fights that led to homicides.

Perkins up-rooted and fled these kinds of conditions for what he felt would be a better life in California. Once he arrived, although he had managed to get only a third-grade education while in Simpson County, in California, he was able to secure a job as the foreman over a crew of ditch-diggers. From there he developed other construction and managerial skills that would enable him to advance economically both then and when he would eventually return to Mississippi.

Through it all, he kept in his memory, the family and neighbors that he had left in Mississippi. The more he thought about them, because of the kinds of bonds he had developed in his rural, southern environment, the more determined he was to return and use what he had learned in order to affect societal changes. Among other things, Perkins reasoned that Black people had been so thoroughly exploited because they generally owned none of the means of production except their labor. White people owned the land, they owned the capital, and they were the managers. Black people needed something in addition to their labor upon which to build wealth and even decent daily lives. He also realized that even Black people who did not live on plantations and were able to get federal assistance for housing, only were able to get loans for small Jim Walter homes. Patterns, or a system of racism, had them segregated and oppressed. He was determined to help promote skills development and community development for underprivileged people. It is in that context that Mendenhall Ministries was born.

By the time that Perkins had moved what had been referred to as Mendenhall Ministries to West Jackson, the operation included a community development component referred to as Voice of Calvary Ministries and a companion worship component called Voice of Calvary Fellowship. The entire operation was built upon Perkins’ ideas, promoting a three-pronged strategy of Racial Reconciliation, Relocation, and Redistribution.

Perkins had been utilizing these ideas or principles since his return from California in 1960. He had concluded that Christianity must be “lived out,” especially among the needy and oppressed rather than merely talked about on Sundays and ignored the rest of the week. Starting out by working with junior and senior high schools within a 50-mile radius of Mendenhall, Perkins had garnered a following of most appreciative residents. Based upon this, he led a boycott against racist white businesses in the area. This, too, was successful. As a matter of fact, the efforts were so effective until Perkins was arrested and severely beaten by white police officers in the Brandon jail. This was followed up by threats and other acts of violence. The beating and the violence that surrounded the ministry efforts are detailed in a book, The Preacher And The Klansman, which first ran as a series of articles in the Clarion Ledger newspaper.

Given this push of violent racist activity and the pull of being able to attract more people to the ministry, especially students, Perkins made the move to West Jackson, near Jackson State University in 1972. In this new location, he organized People Development Incorporated, Christian Community Development Association, and Christian Health Fellowship. Through their work, they were demonstrating the three Rs – Racial Reconciliation, Relocation, and Redistribution, while uplifting poor, working-class people and revitalizing their houses and community.

As a result of this preaching and Christian example, a fairly large contingent of white individuals and families became affiliated with Voice of Calvary – most from other states, but some from the Jackson area. Likewise, local Black residents became increasingly attracted to Voice of Calvary. The working together and worshipping together was an example of the kind of foundation that Perkins felt was necessary for there to be real racial reconciliation. This was the case, because it also meant that there would be discussions of racism and the history of the racial segregation and oppression experienced by Black people in this country. It would mean that more white people would become acquainted with the monumental moral and spiritual problem of racism, that underlay much of the condition of underprivileged Black people.

Beyond the reconciliation that would be occurring from the working, worshipping, and discussing together, Voice of Calvary stressed the idea of relocation, that is, that white people needed to move into the neighborhoods where working-class Black people lived so that they could understand and actually “feel” what Black people experience on a daily basis. The Black poor and oppressed would no longer be isolated; out of sight and out of mind. Relocation would also help transform these white residents into stronger advocates for the kinds of political, economic, and social changes that Black people needed and for which they had been struggling for years.

The third part of the John Perkins/Voice of Calvary strategy was the redistribution of wealth. This component was more difficult for many reasons, but especially because it would require the surrendering of much on the part of even sympathetic white people. It also would require statewide and even a national effort in order to be meaningfully achieved.

Nevertheless, despite what was sometimes slow progress, Perkins was able to attract some local white followers and many from other locations. Meanwhile, he went on speaking tours around this country and the world. He simultaneously wrote a virtual library of books in spreading his message and explaining his vision. 

Many of these books (see 8B) were co-authored, but Perkins’ philosophy, theology, and strategic thinking are clearly prominent throughout. The writings spell out his vision, his ministry and foundation, his life’s work.