BJU To Observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day
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FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)—Three months shy of his 101st birthday, Eugene Florence was awarded his master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary during a special segment of the fall commencement service in Fort Worth, Texas, Dec. 10, 2004.
Eugene Florence was born on Feb. 29, 1904. He began taking classes at Southwestern’s so-called “Negro extension centers” in 1943 when he was 39 years old. The extension centers offered only four credit hours during any one semester, and the classes were held at night on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It took him eight years to fulfill the requirements of the degree.
Prior to 1951, Southwestern did not make its master’s program available to blacks. The extension centers were started in 1940 on the seminary’s Fort Worth campus, and in churches located in Beaumont, Mission, Dallas, Austin, Waco and Mexia, Texas.
Like many, SWBTS was slow, but did get it right.
Good for SWBTS, and good for BJU.
David R. Brumbelow
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