William Holmes Borders
{{Short description|American civil rights activist and pastor (1905–1993)}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix = Reverend
| name = William Holmes Borders
| honorific_suffix = Sr.
| image = A.T. Walden 1950.jpg
| alt = Clarence Mitchell Jr. (seated, bottom left), Borders (seated, bottom center), and A.T. Walden (seated, bottom right), with 3 unknown standing men, 1950.
| caption = Clarence Mitchell Jr. (seated, bottom left), Borders (seated, bottom center), and A.T. Walden (seated, bottom right), with 3 unknown standing men, 1950.
| birth_date = 24 February 1905
| death_date = 23 November 1993
| nationality = United States
| years_active = 1937–1988
| movement = Civil Rights Movement
| children = 1
| relatives = Lisa Borders (granddaughter)
}}
William Holmes Borders Sr. (24 February 1905 – 23 November 1993)"United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKTZ-JN6W : accessed 17 February 2021), William Holmes Borders, Sr, Florida, United States, 26 Nov 1993; from "Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 - Today)," database, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : 2014); citing Tampa Tribune, The, born-digital text. was an American civil rights activist and leader and pastor of Wheat Street Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia from 1937 to 1988.
Biography
Borders was born in Macon, Georgia on 24 February 1905 to Leila Birdstrong and James Buchanan Borders, a pastor for the Swift Creek Baptist Church. He attended Morehouse College, but could only afford to pay for two years. College president John Hope allowed him to graduate anyway as long as he pay in the future.
During bus desegregation in Atlanta, Borders sat in the front of a bus and was arrested. He formed the Wheat Street Credit Union to provide low-interest loans to blacks. Three times in the 1960s and 1970s, Borders ran for the Georgia House of Representatives but failed.
Influence
Borders' influence in the black community was the trigger for a local radio station to offer him a weekly program in 1940. Listeners of both races tuned in to hear information about segregation, disfranchisement during World War II, and black migration to the north. The program became the second-highest-rated broadcast in Atlanta.{{cite web |url=http://www.pba.org/programming/programs/voicesofchange/3138/ |title=William Holmes Borders |website=PBA (Public Broadcasting Atlanta) Online |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160715173220/http://www.pba.org/programming/programs/voicesofchange/3138/ | archive-date=July 15, 2016 }}
Borders had a significant influence on the life of Martin Luther King Jr.{{cite journal|last1=Randall|first1=Ian M.|title="The Baptist Convictions of Martin Luther King Jr (1929-1968)|journal=Journal of European Baptist Studies|date=September 2008|volume=9|issue=1|pages=5–21|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=36217341&site=eds-live&scope=site|access-date=2 November 2016 |issn=1213-1520 }} Borders's oral presentation and expression accompanied by bodily gesture and physical movement could be seen in the sermons of Dr. King.{{cite journal|last1=Nieman|first1=James|title=The Idea of Practice and Why It Matters in the Teaching of Preaching|journal=Teaching Theology & Religion|date=2008|volume=11|issue=3|pages=123–133|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9647.2008.00429.x|doi-access=}}
Personal life
Borders Sr. was the father of William Holmes Border, Jr., and the grandfather of Lisa Borders, member of the Atlanta City Council and one-time candidate for mayor of Atlanta in the 2009 election.{{Cite web |title=William Borders Obituary (2010) - Atlanta, GA - Atlanta Journal-Constitution |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/atlanta/name/william-borders-obituary?id=23725972 |access-date=2024-02-17 |website=Legacy.com}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Find a Grave|10655394}}
{{Civil rights movement}}
{{Atlanta history}}
{{Atlanta}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Borders, William Holmes, Sr.}}
Category:Activists for African-American civil rights
Category:American civil rights activists
Category:Southern Baptist ministers
Category:African-American Baptist ministers
Category:Activists from Atlanta
Category:Burials at South-View Cemetery
Category:20th-century African-American people
Category:20th-century Baptist ministers from the United States