Reflections on My Journey in Bloomington, MN

As he approached his 100th birthday in 2021, the Reverend J. Phillips Noble reflected on his journey from segregated rural Mississippi to being a white progressive pastor in Anniston, Alabama, at the height of the 20th century civil rights movement. In Anniston, where white supremacists famously burned the Freedom Riders' bus in 1961, and committed other violence and intimidation, Noble became a voice of reconciliation and justice. He worked with local leaders, black and white, to move the community past the divisions of Jim Crow segregation. Noble served on the local interracial commission established by the city, and he formed enduring friendships with black ministers. His short reflection on this history and the role he and his family played in it is an affirming declaration of faith and fellowship.