Like many disciples before them, Highland was not always confident of the faith that called them. Occasionally they would seek ways to avoid facing such issues but there is a continuing theme of trying to reach across the racial divide and be ambassadors of reconciliation.
In 1968 the issue was raised as to whether Black children would be welcome at Highland’s weekday school. While eventually they approved such an action, they first explored whether the issue could be avoided by providing more funds for a kindergarten program at the Lincoln Street Project in which Highland had major financial and volunteer involvement.
That same year the nation was experiencing an increasing amount of violence in the cities across the nation. A special Presidential task force issued a report entitled “Crisis in the Nation ” which declared that the central problem was white racism. A small group of Highlanders formed a special Sunday school class to study the issue and invited an elder from Dellabrook, William Buie, to assist in their study.
The tensions around the issue of race in our society were high enough that when rumors began to surface that the class might be interested in purchasing some property in a White neighborhood and moving a Black family into the community, potential conflict in the church became quite high. The Session investigated the issue, separated rumor from fact, and wrote a letter to the congregation reaffirming the class’s study and the theology which lifted up the value of diversity.
