Research Catalog

Title

Will Herzfeld papers, 1964-1990.

Author

Herzfeld, Will Lawrence, 1937-

Supplementary Content

Finding Aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

.6 lin. ft.

Summary

The Will Herzfeld Papers are divided into Personal Papers, Correspondence, and materials related to Herzfeld's clerical as well as secular professional activities. Personal Papers includes schedules, invitations, press relases and news clippings by and about Reverend Herzfeld, information about the Tuscaloosa boycott, and three speeches, 1964-1989. The bulk of correspondence is administrative and business in nature, and primarily between Herzfeld and Lutheran bodies, 1967-1984. The material in the series Professional Activities--Clerical, consists of memorial and anniversary journals of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, church programs and bulletins of forums in which Herzfeld participated and material regarding the 1988 merger of the three Lutheran churches. The contents of the series, Professional Activities--Secular, encompass programs of secular forums in which he took part, as well as a final communique, press statement, draft appeal, schedule, and report on the meeting of youth and students from the International Conference-Dialogue for Disarmament and Detente.

Donor/Sponsor

Preservation of the Black Religious Heritage Project funded by the Lilly Endowment.

Subjects

• Bethlehem Lutheran Church (Oakland, Calif.)
• Herzfeld, Will Lawrence
• African American clergy
• African American churches
• African American Lutherans
• African Americans > Civil rights

Note

• Three photograph albums transferred to Photographs and Prints Division.

Source (note)

• Herzfeld, Will L.

Biography (note)

• Will L. Herzfeld, pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Oakland, California since 1973, was the first African-American bishop to head a Lutheran denomination in the United States. Born in Mobile, Alabama, Herzfeld was enrolled in Lutheran schools beginning at the elementary level and attended the Alabama Lutheran Academy in Selma and graduated with an Associate degree in Arts in 1957 from Immanuel Lutheran College of the Missouri Synod in Greensboro, North Carolina. He further pursued his education to obtain a Masters of Divinity in 1961 at Immanuel Lutheran Seminary in Greensboro. Twenty years later, while combining duties as pastor, professor and social activist, he found time to obtain a Doctorate of Divinity from the Center for Urban Black Studies, Berkeley, California in 1984.

Processing Action (note)

• Accessioned
• Processed
• Cataloged

Call Number

Sc MG 323

OCLC

NYPW93-A153

Author

Herzfeld, Will Lawrence, 1937-

Title

Will Herzfeld papers, 1964-1990.

Biography

Will L. Herzfeld, pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Oakland, California since 1973, was the first African-American bishop to head a Lutheran denomination in the United States. Born in Mobile, Alabama, Herzfeld was enrolled in Lutheran schools beginning at the elementary level and attended the Alabama Lutheran Academy in Selma and graduated with an Associate degree in Arts in 1957 from Immanuel Lutheran College of the Missouri Synod in Greensboro, North Carolina. He further pursued his education to obtain a Masters of Divinity in 1961 at Immanuel Lutheran Seminary in Greensboro. Twenty years later, while combining duties as pastor, professor and social activist, he found time to obtain a Doctorate of Divinity from the Center for Urban Black Studies, Berkeley, California in 1984.

Herzfeld was a pastor at the Christ Lutheran Church in the Tuscaloosa chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference when he became involved in the 1964 Tuscaloosa boycott of downtown businesses. In the 1970's, he served as director of the National Conference of Black Churchmen and was on the Board of Directors of the Black Theology Project.

In 1976, the church Herzfeld pastored, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, was one of the first to break away from the Lutheran Church in America and join the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC), an organization of which Herzfeld assumed the vice presidency. Herzfeld was instrumental in merging the AELC, the Lutheran Church in America, and the American Lutheran Church to form the Evangelical Lutheran Churche in America in 1988. Among many other humanitarian, civic, and educational activities, he is adjunct professor of Urban Ministry at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California.

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Research Call Number

Sc MG 323