Rev. R.L. Freeman

Pastor, Bethesda Baptist Church for forty two years, now Pastor Emeritus A Great Friend and Humanitarian

The words come from one who has the highest

confidence in and respect for the late Dr. Clarence Jordan. He was a man who deserved the highest respect and good will. His heart was touched and he yearned for the betterment of all people, especially the poor and oppressed and depressed people.

I can remember the year that the Supreme Court of our country issued the edict that the segregation of the public schools was unconstitutional. It was in that year that my daughter Robertiena Freeman, and a few other black students applied for and were admitted as students at Americus High School. Then trouble started. My daughter was arrested on a false and trumped-up charge. She was tried and sentenced to the reform school right at the time her final examinations were to be given in her freshman year in high school. She was in jail; it was then that the late Dr. Clarence Jordan and the attorney for the Americus School system came to my rescue. The attorney pled with the school board officials to have my daughter released to take her final examinations. She was permitted to have her books and other necessary materials, which I, her father, carried to her. She studied and passed the exam.

While all of this was going on Dr. Clarence Jordan, in a prayerful manner, succeeded in getting the judge of court to turn my daughter over to him, and let him enroll her in a camp of their approval to spend the summer. This camp which he sent her to was very helpful and enjoyable to her.

The prayers of Dr. Jordan and the people at the Koinonia Farm, my family and myself, and our many friends and her many friends and school mates --we believe God answered them all.

I and my family will always feel indebted to the late Dr. Jordan for his kind and gracious service rendered to us in the time of our deep and all but helpless condition. He proved to be a friend and a friend indeed to come to my rescue at a time when some in the Americus community were threatening and bombing his farm, the Koinonia Farm, and other businesses that were associated with him.

I was out at the farm attending our Minister's meeting and we were taken on a tour of the farm. We viewed the grave of Dr. and Mrs. Jordan and I prayed a silent prayer that God would bless the ashes and the Koinonia Farm which was started by his hands.