Charles William Kerr
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Charles William Kerr (2 April 1875, – 18 July 1951) was a Moderator of the General Assembly for the Presbyterian Church in the United States, as well as the longtime pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Tulsa, Oklahoma, the second largest Presbyterian church in the United States.
[edit] Life and Work
Kerr was born on 2 April 1875 to an old Scots Presbyterian Lowland family. After his family immigrated to the western Pennsylvania in the 19th century, Kerr graduated with a B.A. from Slippery Rock Normal Teachers College in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. He studied for the Presbyterian ministry at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois, graduated in 1898 and was ordained.
On 6 September 1898, Kerr married Anna Elizabeth Coe, born on 6 April 1876. The Coes were Pennsylvania abolitionists who participated in the pre-Civil War underground railway to assist escaping slaves. She descended from the armigerous Coes of Gestingthorpe Manor, Essex, England. Her ancestor, Robert Coe, an English Puritan, immigrated to America in 1634, and was a founder of the town of Stamford, Connecticut. On their wedding day Reverend and Mrs. Kerr left Pennsylvania for Indian Territory as young Scots Presbyterian missionaries to the Indians and freedmen (Blacks freed from slavery) living in what is now Oklahoma. They had two children, Hawley and Margaret.
On Saturday, 10 February, 1900, Kerr said that he was "called" to be pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Tulsa, then a sleepy Creek Indian village at the crossing of the Frisco and Midland Valley Railroad tracks. His first church was a gothic-styled clapboard wooden church. Kerr was the first permanent Christian pastor in Tulsa, and the only one until the Baptists obtained a resident minister in 1906. As an early day missionary, Kerr frequently went to Tulsa's "skid row" on First Street to pray, kneeling in the gutter with drunk cowboys on Friday and Saturday nights to lead them to Christ.
The 1901 discovery of crude oil transformed Tulsa into a boomtown — the "Oil Capitol of the World" — as well as transforming the Kerr's original missionary vocation to Indians and Freedmen into the pastorate of an all-white church. Tulsa rapidly grew from a population of 600 to 72,000 by 1921: 60,000 whites and 12,000 Blacks. Tulsa's Black district was named "Greenwood". Early on Kerr made friends with the Black pastors in Greenwood who were publicly disdained by Tulsa's other prominent white clergy.
His favourite story as a guest preacher in Greenwood churches was that of the African, Simon of Cyrene, a Black man who was a gardener with two sons named Alexander and Rufus (common names in Greenwood):
- Jesus was condemned by his own people. The sentenced was carried out by the Romans who represented white people. Representing all persons of African descent — past, present, and future, Simon of Cyrene was the only person in Jerusalem willing to help Jesus carry his Cross. As a result of the help given to Him by Simon of Cyrene, all people of African descent have a very special place in Jesus' heart: Now in Glory Jesus stands ready to reciprocate the help given to Him by Simon of Cyrene by answering their prayers. The ministry of service begun by Simon of Cyrene in helping Jesus carry his Cross to Calvary is continued by helping someone with a burden.
Kerr often brought food and clothes to, prayed with, and found jobs for the many homeless people (Black, white, and Indian), living under Tulsa's 11th Street Bridge, forgotten by oil-rich Tulsans.
After the Dawes Act of 1877 led to the Land Run of 1889, Indians lost most of their territory to usurping Southern poor whites and the petroleum industry. Having personally witnessed Indians being swindled out of their lands and rights with whiskey, Kerr became the foremost temperance crusader in Oklahoma.
Kerr's burning Scottish sense of social justice motivated him to sponsor an annual Labour Day service for all trade union members at Tulsa's First Presbyterian Church to encourage democratic unionism as a vehicle for needed social, economic, and political change. He opposed from his pulpit attempts by the local oilmen to bust unions.
Very evangelical, Kerr held annual summer tent revivals in the vacant lot next to the Tulsa County Courthouse. He brought guests speakers such as Billy Sunday, William Jennings Bryan, and Carrie Nation to Tulsa. As a fellow temperance crusader Nation frequently stayed with the Kerrs in their home, where she organised raids against the illegal sale of liquor in Tulsa.
