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TODAYS PHOTO GALLERY | PREVIOUS DAYS' PHOTO GALLERIES
Historical photo gallery
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March 1952: Dr. Roy G. Ross, then the Council's "second in command,"
pushes a button to start the initial press run of the RSV Bible. The
Council's first general secretary, Dr. Samuel McCrea Cavert, looks on.
The printing plant was a facility of American Book-Stratford Press,
Inc., in New York City. On the official publication date in the fall,
some 1.5 million people in more than 3,000 communities celebrated
the event in ecumenical worship services.
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August 1952: TV was new and so was the Revised Standard Version of the
Bible. The Mike and Buff Show on CBS-TV was the first to carry a program
on the RSV. From left: hosts Mike Wallace and Buff Cobb, renowned biblical
scholar Dr. Herbert May, and actor John Loder.
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January 1953: Baseball legend Jackie Robinson (left), who served as a
president of the NCC's United Church Men, receives a plaque and an RSV
from the Council in honor of his accomplishments. Robinson was one of
many notables worldwide - from U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred
Vinson to Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia - who received gift
copies of the RSV. The first copy, specially bound in Moroccan leather,
was presented to President Truman.
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Circa 1954: Education of migrant children was an important focus of the
NCC's ministry to migrant workers in the 1950s. Volunteers traveled to
migrant camps in automobiles called "Harvesters" taking educational and
other services to people in need. By the 1960s, it was apparent to many
that even the best of such efforts left the migrants' basic conditions
unchanged. In response, migrant ministry took a new direction and began
to support the unionizing efforts of farm workers. In 1968, the NCC
supported the California grape boycott led by the United Farm Workers
Organizing Committee. In the early 1970s, the Council's migrant ministry
section joined with other groups to become the National Farm Worker Ministry,
an advocacy group that remains related to the NCC.
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June 1956: Metropolitan Nicolai led a deputation of Russian Orthodox Church
leaders to the U.S. at the height of the Cold War. The scene was tense at what
was then called Idlewild Airport (now Kennedy), as the Metropolitan and the
NCC's president, the Rev. Dr. Eugene Carson Blake (second from right), left
for the limousine trip to New York City. Police flanked them for their
protection. Christians from the U.S. and the former Soviet Union have continued
to struggle together to make a witness for Christian unity and for world peace,
right through the period of "glasnost" and to this day. The story of Christians
surmounting geographical and political barriers to unity can also be told of
relationships with churches and ecumenical agencies in many other countries.
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1958: A family that fled the turmoil of the Hungarian Revolution looks
for the name of their new hometown on a map of the United States. CWS
helped to resettle these and thousands of other Hungarian refugees who
arrived in New Jersey's Camp Kilmer, which was run by the U.S. Army.
Church World Service has been deeply involved in refugee work since its
inception in 1946, four years before it became part of the new NCC. Born
in the aftermath of World War II, CWS responded to many of the refugees
and displaced persons who were uprooted in unprecedented numbers by that
conflict. Ever since, it has assisted refugees around the world, helping
to resettle some 400,000 newcomers in U.S. communities.
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August 1963: The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom included many
thousands of clergy, including a group of 200 national church leaders who
walked together near the head of the march. Prominent among them was the
Rev. Dr. Eugene Carson Blake (second from right, first row) then vice-chairman
of the NCC's Commission on Religion and Race and chief executive officer of
the United Presbyterian Church in the USA. Blake spoke at ceremonies at
the Lincoln Memorial, pictured here, and was one of ten representatives of
civil rights, church and labor groups to call on President Kennedy the day
of the march. The churches are often credited with "tipping the balance"
in favor of civil rights legislation of the mid-1960s and have remained
staunch advocates of civil rights for all.
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October 1963: From left to right: Dr. Anna A. Hedgeman and Dr. Robert
Spike of the NCC staff, along with Bishop B. Julian Smith of the Christian
Methodist Episcopal Church, examine a photographic exhibit presented to the
General Board. The exhibit highlights the NCC's growing response to the civil
rights and race relations crisis in the nation, with particular emphasis on
Mississippi, the center of white opposition to the civil rights movement.
At the time of this photo, plans were being laid for NCC involvement in
1964's Freedom Summer and in the Delta Ministry, an effort toward the
economic, social and political development of African American communities
that suffered because of racial prejudice.
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December 1964: NCC President Reuben H. Mueller (left at mike) dedicated
two railroad carloads of corn and soybeans given by the Iowa CROP Campaign
for overseas distribution. Standing with him is Iowa CROP chair, Dr. Lavern
Kinzel. A Church World Service program, CROP began as a way to share
bountiful harvests in the U.S. with the starving people of post-WWII Europe
through commodity collection in rural areas. Today, people in rural, urban
and suburban communities help Church World Service fight hunger at home and
in more than 80 other countries. Participants in annual community CROP WALKS
against hunger raise millions of dollars every year for this purpose and also
learn about root causes of poverty.
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May 1966: Longtime NCC director for religious and civil liberty, Dean Kelley
(left), and Serge Hummon, who chaired the NCC's Committee on Indian Work
(right), stand with elders of the Indigenous community of Taos Pueblo, New
Mexico. The photo was taken in Washington, D.C., where Hummon gave
testimony to a Senate subcommittee in support of the Taos Pueblos' claim to
exclusive use of the ancestral lands surrounding New Mexico's Blue Lake.
Kelley's great legacy in the area of civil and religious liberty for all
people included a record of strong support for religious freedom for
Indigenous peoples, as well as for their land rights.
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April 1989: Pope John Paul II listens to NCC citation of appreciation
presented by former NCC president, Bishop Philip R. Cousin. Cousin and
other members of an NCC delegation, including former general secretary,
the Rev. Dr. Arie R. Brouwer (at left), visited the Vatican for several
days of talks with officials. Among topics: collaborative efforts between
the NCC and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Cordial relationships
between the two bodies, already well established at the time of this visit,
have continued to grow. In recent years, in addition to closer ties with
the Roman Catholic Church, the NCC has also developed deeper relationships
with Evangelical and Pentecostal churches.
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