Right Reverend Randolph Royall Claiborne, Jr.


Photo from TrueKnowledge.com
 Episcopal Clergy

Born:November 7, 1906, Farmville, VA
Died:Feb. 1986, Atlanta, GA

Notes:

•  Education:
University of Virginia, received his bachelor's degree in 1928.
Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, received his Master of Divinity in 1931 - Ancestry.com

•  Married Clara Virginia Kinney Stribling (1906-1987) on June 9, 1953 in Atlanta GA. This was Clara's second marriage. Her first marriage was to W. L. ("Young") Stribling, famed light heavyweight pugilist, when she was only 19 and he was just 21. They had three children. He died in a motorcycle accident, when he was 28, while going to see his newborn son in a Macon, Georgia hospital. Dr. Claiborne and Clara were not yet married when he served at Nativity in Huntsville, AL. They had no children. - Ancestry.com

•  "The next two decades (1953-1971) were led by Bishop Randolph Claiborne, who brought the Diocese into a spiritual revival, enlightenment during the civil rights movement, and 'sound' financial responsibility. -- The Diocese numbered 75 parishes and missions and 35,292 communicants." - Atlanta Diocese History

•  Served as rector for Church of the Nativity in Huntsville, Alabama, from 1938 to 1949. - Wikipedia - Bio

•  Son of the Rev. Randolph Royall Claiborne, vicar of the Episcopal Church in Farmville, Virginia, and Mary Thomas Clark. - Wikipedia - Bio

•  Difficult situation: " In 1963, the Lovett School became the focus of a desegregation controversy when it rejected the applications of three black students, including Martin Luther King III. At the center of the debate was the school's ties to the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, which had been established in 1954. The national Episcopal Church had issued directives to its member dioceses to integrate their institutions; the Lovett School's alleged refusal to do so placed the bishop of Atlanta, the Rt. Rev. Randolph Claiborne Jr., in a difficult situation. After a number of pickets at the school organized by the Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity, the diocese and school attempted to resolve the situation by severing ties with each other. In later years, the school revised its admission policy with regards to race, and was once again recognized by the national church as an Episcopal school. Today, no such remnants of the 1960s racial policies or turmoil appear to exist, and the school features many multicultural programs." - Wikipedia - Lovett

•  Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, elected in 1952.
Bishop Suffragan in the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama.


Related Links:

•  Ancestry.com - Page owned by Guerry McW and requires Ancestry.com membership to view. (Originally found at http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/22862303/person/1567075469.)

•  Atlanta Diocese History - History of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta - reference made to Bishop Claiborne (Copyright 2006 by The Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, Inc.) (Originally found at http://bishopsearch.episcopalatlanta.org/Content/History_of_the_Diocese_of_Atlanta.asp.)

•  EpiscopalArchives.Org - Items related to the Lovett School controversy (Originally found at http://www.episcopalarchives.org/Afro-Anglican_history/exhibit/escru/lovett_school2.php.)

•  TrueKnowledge.com - Photo and Biographical information (Originally found at http://www.trueknowledge.com/q/facts_about__randolph_r_claiborne_jr.)

•  Wikipedia - Bio - Bio

•  Wikipedia - Lovett - History of Lovett School - Includes reference to a difficult situation while Claiborne was Bishop of the Atlanta Diocese.