DWIGHT MCKISSIC GRACIOUSLY SLAMS SOUTHERN SEMINARY’S SLAVE MEMORIAL PLAQUE and says he was looking for something much more prominent. McKissic still gave $2000.00 for a plaque that looks like it cost $300.00 that people have to make phone calls to the campus police to find.

In 2020, McKissic called for the renaming of Boyce College, the private college located at SBTS, amid a general outcry from racial justice activists across the country for the removal of statues of slaveholders from public spaces as well as their names from buildings in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, which rocked the nation that year.

Prior to that call, Mohler had urged the SBTS community in 2018 to repent of the sin of racism in a 71-page document called, “Report on Slavery and Racism in the History of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.”

“We must repent of our own sins; we cannot repent for the dead. We must, however, offer full lament for a legacy we inherit, and a story that is now ours,” Mohler wrote to the school founded in 1859 as part of the pro-slavery SBC.

It was noted in the report that James P. Boyce, the founder, and first president of the SBTS and other founding faculty — John A. Broadus, Basil Manly Jr. and William Williams — all owned slaves. Together, they owned more than 50 persons and invested capital in slaves who could earn for their owners an annual cash return. The seminary’s early faculty and trustees also defended the righteousness of slaveholding.

Despite calling for repentance for “a legacy [of slavery] we inherit, and a story that is now ours], Mohler, who previously noted in June 2015 that he had no intention to remove the names of any of the founders from the school’s buildings, reiterated that commitment in 2020 in response to McKissic’s call. He offered, however, to erect a memorial to the enslaved people who were held by the seminary’s founders.

On seeing McKissic’s post on X in June, Mohler replied with an apology and noted that the memorial was already done and “is quite prominent” on the school’s campus. The SBTS president further offered to show the Texas pastor where the memorial is located if he would rejoin him on the campus to have a look.

“Pastor, glad you visited. Sorry you did not see the memorial. It is quite prominent. You had suggested it, and we followed up as promised. Your suggestion was right and timely. If you have time to come back, I will gladly show it to you this afternoon,” Mohler wrote.

McKissic was unable to return to the campus but Deryk Hayes, pastor of Saint Paul Baptist Church at Shively Heights in Louisville, replied in a post on X with a photo of the memorial.

“I’m no scholar but prominent seems to be somewhat of a stretch in my estimation. Again, I’m no scholar. Neither am I [a] dummy … the very placement of this plaque proves at the very least that @albertmohler is either culturally insensitive or ignorant. The founders aren’t heroic!” Hayes wrote.

Hayes, who would later reveal to The Christian Post that he is also one of a few black students enrolled at the seminary, was not pleased with the inscription on the plaque nor the placement of the plaque on a building that celebrates one of the founding faculty members.

“Our founding faculty, James P. Boyce, John A. Broadus, Basil Manly Jr., and William Williams gave this institution its birth and devoted their lives to its cause,” the inscription on the memorial began.

“They are also slaveholders and defenders of slavery. Together they claimed ownership over at least 50 fellow human beings, equally made in God’s image,” the inscription endorsed by the unanimous action of the seminary’s Board of Trustees on Oct. 12, 2020, added. “We do not know their names, but God does. We now honor and express gratitude for their unrecognized contribution to this seminary and its mission. ‘Honor to whom honor is owed.’ Romans 13:7.’”

In a statement shared with CP on the memorial, McKissic said he harbored greater expectations of what the slavery memorial at SBTS would have looked like compared with the photo of the plaque shared by Hayes.

“I must admit that I was hopeful and searched for a memorial so prominent and visible that I could not have missed it. In my mind, I pictured an outdoor, highly visible memorial that could not be overlooked. No one told me that. It was simply what I had hoped for,” he said.

Even though he promised to donate to the erection of the memorial honoring the enslaved men and women who helped build the seminary, no one informed him that the plaque had been made and placed in the Broadus Chapel for viewing.

McKissic said he only decided to check the campus of the seminary for signs of the memorial after reading a tweet from fellow Southern Baptist Pastor Alan Cross referencing the school’s history of slavery.

“It triggered my memory to go and see if a memorial was actually there. I made a quick, hurried visit to a couple of buildings on campus, [but] did not see it. And I looked outside on the lawn and still did not see it. I assumed one had not been erected. But if I can be honest, I fulfilled my commitment to make a donation by sending Southern Seminary a $2,000 donation which was my estimate that should at least cover the cost to erect the plaque,” he said. “A more expansive and expensive memorial would have required a larger donation. So, the size of the memorial saved me money.”

When asked about the memorial, its formal announcement and placement on the campus of the seminary on Wednesday, Mohler told The Christian Post in an interview that the memorial was placed in Broadus Chapel shortly after the promise was made to add it to the campus in 2020. He said they also consulted with several black students and a black member of the seminary’s board of trustees to decide on a fitting tribute.

“I consulted with some African American students, and we have an African American board member who was involved in this decision,” Mohler told CP, noting that they also felt the Broadus chapel was the best place to show off the marker.

“We intentionally put the marker in a very strategic place which is in the main entrance to one of the most historic spots, prominent spots on the campus, which is in the foyer of the Broadus Chapel,” Mohler explained. “I guess there are persons who could say it could be in a more prominent spot, but, frankly, I’d be hard pressed to find an area of wall on which a marker could be made that would be more prominent.”

He noted that the SBTS board of trustees also had a restricted celebration of the marker at the time it was unveiled due to COVID-19.

“We invited a lot of people from the campus (to be a part of it), but let me remind you, we were doing it under the situation of COVID when we could not have large assemblies,” Mohler said. “It was not in time for a public ceremony. It wasn’t possible.”

Mohler noted that even though some people may criticize the marker as insufficient, he is also aware that everyone would not be pleased with what they have done to celebrate the slaves.

“We put up that marker in good faith. We stand behind it. It is a public statement. I realize that does not please everyone as sufficient for what they would hope,” he told CP. “I can say on behalf of the institution, we want to do everything that is right. But clearly, there’s a level of disagreement about what that right action would be.”

McKissic said even though he is disappointed by the stature of the memorial on the SBTS campus, he is “grateful that Dr. Mohler kept his word by acknowledging the role of the enslaved and their financial and labor contribution dedicated to the formation and founding of Southern Seminary.”

Though he celebrates the acknowledgment of the contributions of slaves to SBTS, McKissic made it clear that it doesn’t make up for the seminary leadership’s refusal to scrub the names of the slaveholding founders from the school’s buildings.

“I still think the names of the slaveholding founders should be removed from the buildings on campus,” he said, but he does not believe Mohler and the leadership team “have the inner, moral wherewithal” to do it.

“They obviously value the slave masters more than they did the enslaved, and they are not willing to admit the magnitude in which they were wrong and to deny the fruit of repentance by removing the names of these slave masters,” McKissic added.

Hayes argued that if visitors were to intentionally go searching for the SBTS slave memorial on a random visit, it would be difficult to find on the campus because there is no guide directing them to the plaque.