United Church Board for Homeland Ministries Officers

SHELBY ROOKS. PAPERS, 1969–1994. 12.0 linear feet
The Reverend Dr. Charles Shelby Rooks was born in Beaufort, North Carolina. He was ordained by the National Baptist Convention in 1951 and transferred standing to the Congregational Christian Churches in 1953. He received a B.A. degree from Virginia State University, the Masters of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York, and did further study at Teachers College, Columbia University, Mansfield College, Oxford University, The North American College, in Rome, Italy, and during the summers of 1967 and 1968. He was also a Visiting Fellow at the Episcopal Theological Seminary in the Southwest in 1966. Reverend Rooks holds honorary doctorates from the College of Wooster (D.D), Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta (D.D), Virginia Union University (D.D), Howard University, (L.H.D.) Virginia State University (L.H.D.), Dillard University (L.L.D.) , Huston-Tillotson College (Litt.D.), Talladega College (L.H.D.), and Heidelberg College (L.L.D.). He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Elizabeth Taylor Byrd Fund Annual Award for Outstanding Community Service (Princeton, NJ) the "Light of Knowledge" Award, Society for the Study of Black Religion, and the Distinguished Service Medal Number 3 from The Association of Theological Schools in the U.S. and Canada. He has published more than 60 articles on a variety of theological subjects.

In 1984, the Reverend Dr. Charles Shelby Rooks was elected as the chief executive officer of the Board for Homeland Ministries of the United Church of Christ. Prior positions include president of the Chicago Theological Seminary for 10 years, executive director (1967-1974), and associate director (1960-1967) of the Fund for Theological Education, Princeton, NJ. Reverend Rooks has pastured the Shanks Village Protestant church in Orangeburg, New York (1951-53), Lincoln Memorial Temple, of Washington, D.C. (1953-60), been Interim Minister of Heritage U.C.C., Baltimore, Maryland (1964), and assistant Minister of First Congregational Church in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1964.

In May, 1999 the Amistad Research Center received 21 cartons and 2 file cabinets from Dr. Rooks. The donation includes an outstanding library of over 500 books, and a large number of serials which together, with the papers form a major collection on black religion, Congregationalism, and the United Church of Christ. The collection includes outgoing and incoming correspondence, numerous sermons, speeches, bulletins, orders of worship, annual reports, budgets, collected U.C.C. publications and writings.

The collection documents Dr. Rook's career at the Chicago Theological Seminary, and his service as the senior officer of The Board for Homeland Ministries (1984 to 1992), the organization which continues the work of the American Missionary Association, as the agency that conducts mission work, on behalf of the United Church of Christ, with churches, conferences and among those in need with programs in evangelism, church extension, health and welfare, Christian education, higher education, publishing and social and economic justice. The papers reflect the family and ministry of Dr. Rooks and his wife Adienne Martinez Rooks; involve the history of the Congregational church, the U.C.C., the black church in America, civil rights, race relations, theological education for African Americans and Hispanic Americans, Dr. Rooks' research and writing; work with local church ministers, officers of the national and international religious community, and the Council of Presidents of American Missionary Association Colleges.

HOWARD EUGENE SPRAGG. PAPERS, 1940-1989. 7.5 linear feet
Howard E. Spragg, a graduate of Tufts College and Chicago Theological Seminary, served as executive vice-president of the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries from 1969 until his retirement in 1983. Previously, he had served as treasurer of the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries and affiliated corporations, as general secretary of the Board for Home Missions of the Congregational Christian Churches, as general director of missions of the Congregational Christian Churches in Puerto Rico, and as a pastor in Chicago. He is a founding trustee of New College and a former member of the governing board of the National Council of Churches. He has served as a trustee of Dillard University, Tougaloo College, Talladega College, Houston-Tillotson College, LeMoyne-Owen College, and as a charter member of the board of directors of the Amistad Research Center. The collection contains a few pieces of correspondence, articles written by and about Dr. Spragg, and audio tapes, with transcriptions, of oral history interviews with Dr. Spragg and his wife, Jane Nichols Spragg, a physician.