Louisville civil rights leader
dies in Georgia
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Rev. John Rowan Claypool IV, a Louisville
civil-rights advocate whose congregation was among the first to
integrate in the city, died Saturday of complications from cancer
in Decatur, Ga. He was 74.
Claypool was known for his preaching skill and willingness to take
a stand on controversial topics. “It’s an extraordinary
thing for a son to have someone tell you that your father changed
their lives, and I heard it many times,” said his son, Rowan
Claypool.
The elder Claypool was pastor of Crescent Hill Baptist Church from
1960 to 1971. During that time, Crescent Hill became one of the
first congregations in Louisville to integrate.
He gained a wider audience by appearing weekly as a panelist on
WHAS radio’s “The Moral Side of the News” from
1965 until he left to become pastor of a church in Fort Worth, Texas.
But it was a photograph on the front page of The Courier-Journal
that brought Claypool to the forefront of the issue that marked
his time in Louisville.
“My father was a personal friend of Martin Luther King Jr.”
Rowan Claypool said. “A photo of my father having coffee with
King ran on the cover of The Courier-Journal. At the time it was
very controversial. It pushed him to the front of the issue. It
was controversial and unpopular at the church. He took it as an
opportunity to take his professional position in civil rights.”
Claypool spoke on the steps of the Jefferson County Courthouse in
favor of an open-housing ordinance to end discriminatory practices
against blacks, which the Louisville Board of Aldermen adopted in
1967. Also while in Louisville, he spoke on other controversial
topics, such as the Vietnam War, poverty and the changing role of
pastors.
He was president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention and the first
president of the Louisville Baptist Pastors Conference.
In 1986 he was ordained as an Episcopal priest, and he taught at
the McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University in Atlanta until
his death.
In addition to his son, he is survived by his wife, Ann Wilkinson
Scheyd Claypool, two stepchildren and a grandson.
The funeral will be held at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on
Friday in Birmingham, Ala.
(Associated Press)
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