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| The Rev. Cn. Kenneth E. MacDonald (from Edythe Greene et al., eds., The History of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, 1709 Arctic Avenue Atlantic City, New Jersey: The First 100 Years [Norfolk, VA: Hill Printing Co., 2001], 45) |
After a series of less formal protests of the diocesan collaboration with the racist Levitt corporation, the Vestry of St. Augustine’s, Atlantic City, and their priest the Rev. Kenneth E. MacDonald submitted formal written protests: St. Augustine’s to the Treasurer of the Diocese, and MacDonald’s to the Board of Missions. MacDonald’s was titled “A Commentary on a proposal to erect a Church at Levittown,” and he delivered it orally and in writing in the meeting held on December 9, 1958.
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| The conclusion of the Rev. MacDonald's "Commentary," December 9, 1958 (Courtesy of the Diocese of New Jersey) |
He claimed that he and his vestry had not protested more vocally earlier, because he found it hard to believe that the Bishop would cooperate with founding a church in an all-white development when the diocesan convention had formally disavowed segregation in 1955. Apparently, all of Banyard’s prior statements intimating his unwillingness to cooperate with the segregation plans of the Levitt corporation were undone when he admitted at a fall 1958 clergy conference that he was going to accept the gift of land even though Levitt remained unmoved regarding his refusal to sell homes to Black people. MacDonald insisted that if Levitt was unmoved that the church would be de facto segregated, however else it might be spoken of as “integrated” by falling under the aegis of the diocese. Under such a situation MacDonald stated that “If Negroes may not reside there, then the possibility of integration is nullified.” The final passages of MacDonald’s statement are deeply moving and deserve to be quoted in full. He wrote:
My personal opinion, my dear Bishop, is that you will be making a mistake if you accept this property on a stated segregated basis. Your honest assurances of your opposition to the principle of segregation notwithstanding. I sincerely hope that my stand on this matter, my dear Bishop, will not be a source of irritation to you, but in the words of my Vestry, I cannot in good conscience support a proposal, which, in the final analysis will tend to defeat the stated objections of the Diocese of New Jersey. But someone may say: “Will the Church not err in failing to provide pastoral care to those of our Church in that area”? I would reply that Levittown is adjacent to the city of Burlington which has two spacious Episcopal edifices and available resident Priests. I would not be impressed if told that some Protestant Churches are queuing up to accept mr Levit’s [sic] charity. Our Church has never had to look over its shoulders for spiritual or moral guidance from other Churches. My considered opinion is, my dear Bishop, that if for an important principle our Church should take a firm stand and shun a material advantage for such a principle, then in the years to come Churchmen and the residents of New Jersey may very well say, “This was indeed her finest hour”. Thank you sir.
From this episode it becomes clear that the “stated objectives of the Diocese of New Jersey,” as MacDonald refers to them, were in fact misleading. As I have previously written,[1] though the ostensible policy of the diocese was “integration”, in fact the true intent of the policy on the part of the Bishop was to close Black churches, but to allow all-white churches to persist as long as they were called “integrated” in name. The facts of the Levittown project make this abundantly clear.
Unfortunately, Banyard and the diocese did not in fact heed MacDonald’s impassioned and principled protest, the full text[2] of which may be found below. The Church did not “shun a material advantage for such a principle” but rather chose to accept a “material advantage” from the racist Levitt corporation at the expense of principle. It was not “her finest hour.”
Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, Ph.D.
Reparations Commission Research Historian
Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey
[1] Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, "Banyard's Move to 'Integrate' Was Really Just a Push to End Black Churches," DNJRJR (July 1, 2026): https://dionj-racialjusticereview.blogspot.com/2026/07/bishop-banyards-move-to-integrate-was.html.
[2] Kenneth E. MacDonald, “A Commentary on a proposal to erect a Church at Levittown,” delivered December 9, 1958 to the Diocese of New Jersey Board of Missions. Courtesy of the Diocese of New Jersey. MSS held at Diocese of New Jersey archives, Trenton, NJ.
