WOMEN at the

FOREFRONT

BETH ECHOLS:

Standing on Principles By Eron Henry

B

eth Echols filled a variety of roles in her long and distinguished life, from standing up to white supremacists and segregationists, to serving as a college chaplain, to being ordained to the Christian ministry, to working as an advocate and reporter in the capital of the United States, to becoming the wife of a United States congressman. Despite all these roles and more, Echols, now 92 years old,

described her seven-plus years as the executive director of the Baptist World Alliance Women’s Department as the most difficult and challenging in her professional life and career. Asked why that was so, she simply replied, “we never had enough money.” Resources were always limited and in short supply in executing the work of the global Baptist women’s organization. But she described her time at the BWA as among the most

fulfilling and meaningful in her life. “It was the job of a lifetime for me!” she stated. “I loved it.” For her, “meeting women from around the world was the most memorable experience.” One particular group of women holds a special place in her heart. “Papua New Guinea has the best women,” she said. Her life had, however, traversed various paths before she

landed at the BWA in 1987. As “a farm girl” in rural North Carolina she “grew up believing that God had a special mission for her and her life.” Upon graduating high school and with the strong support of her congregation, Abbots Creek Baptist Church, she enrolled at Mars Hill College (now Mars Hill University) in North Carolina followed by the Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) Training School, part of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Her second appointment after leaving the WMU Training

School brought her in conflict with the White Citizens Council of Louisiana. At first, she was chaplain for the student department for Kentucky Baptists for 11 years before taking up a similar position for Baptists in Louisiana. According to Echols, she grew up on a farm without being exposed to the realities of segregation, where her playmates included black children and where blacks,

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who lived and worked on the farm, were treated no differently from whites.

She was fated to work as chaplain during the Civil Rights era in the 1950s. College and university students “and some pastors, unfortunately not many,” got caught up in the movement. Those who did were “targeted by the White Citizens Council for (Continued on next page)

Beth Echols described her time at the BWA as among the most fulfilling and meaningful in her life. “It was the job of a lifetime for me!” she stated. “I loved it.”