"Ted and Donna Braun's
60th Wedding Anniversary Celebration, Held Aug. 8, 2013, Uplands Village,
Pleasant Hill, TN," by Franklin and Betty J. Parker,
bfparker@frontiernet.net
Betty Parker remembering Ted and
Donna Braun as neighbors:
Living with Donna Braun in the house Ted
Braun's parents built, Ted ten years ago
(2003) became our Heritage neighborhood representative to the Uplands
Assembly. Always busy, Ted, with
Donna's help, found time to be a distinguished neighborhood spokesman. Grandview, Church, and Heritage were
one neighborhood then. Several
times each year we had a big potluck lunch in Heritage Hall. Donna brought large sturdy casseroles
to make sure we had enough food.
Whatever the program, Ted always began with some humor to "warm us up."
Ted as our neighborhood "rep"
delivered the By-Lines to each
front door and rang the door bell.
He made certain we knew he
was available if needed. Most
important, Ted, seeing our then unpaved rocky roads, went to the Town Council
and mayor and urged paving our streets.
A great improvement!
Donna's flower garden brightened our spirits
especially in springtime. She planted countless spring bulbs, arranging them
from early blooming to late blooming to assure flowers throughout the
spring. Wherever music was
performed, Donna could be found.
She helped found our local Ensemble (orchestra), sang in the church
choir, played hand-bells, and most of all touched our hearts and souls playing
the cello her family bought for her when she was a child.
All the while Ted was organizing Cuba
seminars, founding and leading the Shalom Center, writing Crossville (TN)
Chronicle "Lion and Lamb"
columns, leading church book discussions, and going every two years to United
Church of Christ (UCC) Synod to produce during Synod for delivery to all
attending Balaam's Courier
commenting on Synod issues—a very demanding and informative task.
Donna and Ted, who remember when all of the
Heritage neighborhood was a cornfield, have always been grand neighbors. END.
-------------------
Franklin Parker below, connecting Ted and Donna Braun to a
true tale of two cities in a time of national crisis sparked by the 1954 U.S.
Supreme Court's Brown vs Board
of Education public school
desegregation decision. This
is the true tale of early defining
moments of two young pastors, about the same age, mid-20s, in their first
pastorates, about the same time, 1955 and 1956, in an explosive U.S.
South. Each faced and stood up to
key contentious challenges; each
became prophets of their time.
True tale of first city: late 1955, Montgomery, AL.
African-American seamstress Rosa Parks arrested, jailed, refused to give up her seat to a white
person entering a full segregated bus.
Local NAACP leaders paid her bail. On the day of her court arraignment, to protest her
arrest and jail humiliation, black leaders held a hastily organized one-day
peaceful Montgomery, Ala bus boycott.
African-Americans walked to work or were
carpooled to work, often by helpful whites. No one was hurt.
White bus company owners lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Needing direction local NAACP leaders
considered what to do next. They
decided to hold a next-step mass meeting at a big black church. Pondering on who might best speak
to galvanize their cause, their choice narrowed to an unaligned then newcomer
preacher to Montgomery, young 26 years old, Atlanta-born, Northern educated,
little known but already respected, concerned Baptist minister named Martin
Luther King, Jr.
Dusk, Dec. 6, 1955, 57 years ago, hesitant,
with little time to prepare, before a jam-packed church, with loudspeakers
outside for massed listeners, Martin Luther King, Jr., that night found his
calling. His impromptu, ringing
speech became the first defining moment of his new church ministry. He mesmerized that audience, lit
a flame of freedom for his people, lifted oppressed people everywhere. His short speech that Dec. 6, 1955
night shook the church rafters, desegregated Montgomery buses and made him a
Prophet of his Time. (see 7.
Parker, Franklin, Reference below for URL access to gist of MLK, Jr.'s Dec. 6,
1955, speech).
A year later, 1956, true tale of second
city, Henderson, KY, in a border area between Northern, mostly liberal public
school desegregation supporters—and, below the Mason-Dixon line—rigid Southern
resistance to public school desegregation, its power structure largely
dominated by determined, threatening, violent KKK and White Citizen Council diehards.
Although Henderson, KY was tense about
school desegregation, it remained relatively peaceful—while, two nearby KY cities some 30 miles
away, Clay, KY and Sturgis, KY,
experienced mob violence against public school integration. The Governor felt forced to call the
National Guard to protect African-American students.
Henderson, KY, city and county, were
relatively safe from violence and relatively peaceful because of two Henderson
ministers: much older (in his mid-60s)
Presbyterian Pastor C. S. Logan, and young, age 28 or so, new Pastor Ted Braun, in his very first
pastorate.
With Ted Braun's permission, and through
Pleasant Hill UCC Church interviewer Al Dwenger's help (he is also currently
Pleasant Hill's Mayor), I pass on
Ted Braun's own account of how he and Pastor Logan kept Henderson, KY public
school desegregation peaceful amid nearby white mob violence.
Ted Braun: "In my first pastorate in Henderson, KY, in 1956 Pastor
C.S. Logan and I had leadership roles in the Henderson County Ministerial
Association. We first integrated
our ministers' group, then the public library. We then took on the White Citizens Council which had
boycotted Henderson's one elementary school that had integrated its first three
grades. Each time the White
Citizens Council held a rally in town to close down the school, we called
school parents supporting integration to a church meeting for sharing and mutual support.
"As a result, we became the first town
in the South in 1956 to defeat a powerful White Citizens Council. The Henderson story was later written
up in the Christian Century and
highlighted in an NBC Today
program. My life journey has
presented additional opportunities and challenges along each step of the way."
End Quote.
Henderson, KY, was young Ted Braun's first
defining ministerial moment. It
was and has been part his life's quest before and after Henderson, KY, to continue his father's, grandfather's
(both minister), and medical
missionary brother Dr. Richard Braun's (deceased 2012) dedicated mission to improve at home
and abroad human equality, justice, peace, and opportunity for all, no
exceptions.
Special
kudos to Ted's wife Donna Braun for her courageous support during tempestuous
times. Her loving help and her
calm wisdom were essential.
All honor, health, and happiness to Ted and
Donna Braun now and in all the years following their 60TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY.
A Ted and Donna Braun
Ministerial Chronology:
--Ted graduated from Elmhurst
College near Chicago, IL.
--Attended Eden Theological
Seminary, St. Louis, MO.
-- Earned a Master of Sacred
Theology, Yale Divinity School, CT.
--Pastor, Zion Evangelical
and Reformed Church, Henderson, KY.
--Campus Minister, Pennsylvania State University,
PA.
--On Staff, Peace Corps
Office, National Council of Churches, NYC, NY.
--Secretary, Interpretations
and Publications, United Church, Board for World Ministries
--Pastor, 18 years, Church of the Good Shepherd, Carbondale,
IL
-Awarded in 1977 the Doctor
of Divinity degree from Eden Theology Seminary in recognition of his many
distinguished services.
--Ted Braun's Cuba interest,
sparked by his first educational trip there in 1975, led to 40 other visits,
most of them leading UCC –sponsored church related study groups.
Writings By and About Rev.
Dr. Theodore A. Braun (1927-):
1. Braun, Theodore A., ed. (with others), Balaam's Unofficial
Handbook of the United Church of Christ.
See:
http://www.amazon.com/Balaams-Unofficial-Handbook-United-Church/dp/0829817972
or: http://tinyurl.com/mxtxvd9
2. __________. Perspectives
on Cuba and its People. Friendship Press, 1999. See:
http://www.amazon.com/Perspectives-Cuba-People-Theodore-Braun/dp/0377003263
or: http://tinyurl.com/ny6ptmu
3. _________ .
"Justice is Not Impartial.
UCC Justice Ministries Respond to Domestic and Global Needs." Ted Braun's expanded essay appeared in
a commemorative book: UCC @ 50—Our History, Our Future. (Excellent background and guide to
UCC's 'fully inclusive' membership policy). See: http://www.ucc.org/50/pdfs/braun.pdf
4. __________. For
Ted Braun's many published
"Lion and the Lamb" articles in the Crossville Chronicle (Crossville, TN), sponsored by the Cumberland
Countians for Peace and Justice, go to:
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=google.com&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=241a68ff0ffb6e40&psj=1&q=lion+and+the+lamb%2C+Crossville%2C+TN+Chronicle&rls=en
or: http://preview.tinyurl.com/l4elh8j
5. “Calm of the Tornado: C. Sumpter Logan, Theodore A.
Braun, and School Desegregation in Henderson, Kentucky." David Lai Paper Submitted for History
700: America Since 1865 Professor Ronald D Eller May 2013, University of
Kentucky History Department.
See PDF paper: http://www.zionucchenderson.com/media/DIR_39101/a52590f319a78bb4ffff80c5ffffe415.pdf
Or:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/mcw8b5e
6. Golder, W. Evan.
"UCC Visitors to Cuba Urge Lifting of U.S. Embargo," see:
http://www.ucc.org/ucnews/jul04/ucc-visitors-to-cuba-urge-lift.html or: http://tinyurl.com/l5mx699
7. Parker, Franklin. For his Martin Luther King, Jr.-related
articles, see:
http://bfparker.hubpages.com/hub/Martin-Luther-King--Jr--Prophet-in-the-Making
Or:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/l59kwrm
And: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ET6uWKyi6kfIFEphIsVmnp9_Uh8tWqGeW1jm1gxwBO0/edit
And:
http://bfparker.hubpages.com/hub/Myles-Horton-1905-90--Educator-and-Social-Activist-of-Highlander-Adult-Education-Center--Tennessee-With-Addendum
Or:
8. Ralston, Rebecca Braun. "Carol—A Song of Joy; A Story of School Segregation in
the South." Typed
article with photos by one of Ted Braun's
3 daughters.
9. For additional
information/news of Rev. Theodore A. Braun, contact: http://www.ucc.org/
and: jeanclark@frontiernet.net whose
weekly "Pleasant Hill Ramblings," Crossville Chronicle (TN) often reports on important Ted Braun activities.
See:
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=google.com&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=241a68ff0ffb6e40&psj=1&q=jean+clark+pleasant+hill+ramblings+crossville+chronicle&rls=en
Or: http://tinyurl.com/mwghev4
Addendum about the authors:
We are Jumping
for joy
Franklin Parker and Betty J. Parker
P.O. Box 406
Pleasant Hill, TN 39578
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