Edward Sebastian Campbell

Edward Sebastian Campbell

Edward (Eddie) Sebastian Campbell (1899, Attala County, Mississippi - Nov 1984, Attala County, Mississippi) was a white Southerner, former Baptist minister, who converted to the Bahá'í Faith and served on assemblies and regional committees of the religion, and helped publish others' poetry, and wrote his own poetry, pamphlets, and books.

Born, raised and War

For the 1900 US Census Edward Sebastian Campbell was the only child, the son, of 20-something-year-old Mississippian parents Robert and "Timmie", though he was listed born 1899, in Attala County. Other and elder Campbells were neighbors; if they are kin, the senior Alec was a widower and had kin from Tennessee, and Robert could have been his firstborn - he's significantly older than other children. Robert rented farmland and was a superintendent probably of Alec's farm. By the 1910 US Census, Campbell had two younger siblings - Robert and Alla. But other Campbells lived nextdoor. Robert and their kin were working a general farm. In 1919 Campbell reported for the draft for World War I. He had reported to Little Rock, Arkansas. He was listed as born Aug 12, 1898, and enlisted November 18, 1918, serving until August 10, 1919, as an NRF, part of the US Navy.

College and marriages

About 1919-1920, Campbell attended and graduated from Mississippi College. For the 1920 US Census, Campbell was living with the family, including siblings Robert and Allie, on a farm run by his father. No Campbells are listed nearby and Campbell had attended a school in the last year. By 1921 Campbell was head of the science and athletics departments of Mountain Home College, previously of the Mississippi College. Soon-to-be wife Velma Rogers was head of the Department of English and Pedagogy, having come from the Women's Training School at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary of Forth Worth, Texas. That fall he posted some athletic practice innovations including being part of the curriculum of all students and teams for both boys and girls arranged. Campbell was among the judges at an athletic meet while his fiance Velna was with her father who was Secretary of the Baptist State Board. That fall Mountain Home College began publishing a biweekly magazine Ozark Echoes to promote the school. Velna was an editor and Campbell was the business manager. In August 1922 Campbell married Velma Lee Rogers, daughter of Rev J. S. Rogers. They were married by her father at the Rogers family church they had pastored at - Rock Hill Baptist Church in Paragould, Arkansas.

In 1925 Campbell, now of Baptist Young People's Union(BYPU), visited back at Mountain Home College, and taught at one of the sessions at the BYPU conference of August back in Little Rock. He again worked with the Union in 1929.

Campbell was elected president of Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, graduate students in 1928, the year his MA thesis was approved. Simultaneously Campbell was a graduate of the Southwestern Baptist Seminary. He briefly studied at the University of Chicago, before returning in April 1929 where Campbell was elected president of the Southeast Arkansas Baptist Sunday School Convention.

With the onset of the Great Depression in the United States, the 1930 US Census places the family living in Carlton, Arkansas, and Campbell was listed as a Baptist minister. In late 1931, he was elected recording secretary of the Arkansas Baptist Convention. By Spring 1932 Campbell was hired by his father-in-law at Central Baptist College to be head of the Bible Department and promotional secretary seeking more students. Campbell, noted previously of the Texas Christian University and Southwestern Seminary, and pastor at the Lake Villege Baptist Church, in the fall of 1932. However, his wife Velma died June 1933. By 1934 Campbell was an insurance agent, at least briefly, in Blytheville, where he also performed some marriages as a minister. But by 1935, the main process of the Great Depression was over, Campbell was remarried, now to Eunice, born in Tennessee, and they were residents in Little Rock while the children were staying in Conway, probably with the Rogers grandparents.

By 1939-40 Campbell was making a living as a poet back in Jackson with the Mississippi Poetry Society and The Clarion-Ledger. The Society was founded in 1933, led by women, with Campbell as corresponding secretary 1939-1940 and formed a chapter in Jackson in 1939. His name was associated with the column after it started. That summer Campbell headed the Society's Walter Malone Memorial Commission so that Malone can be housed effectively in the state government Hall of Fame.

With the April 1940 US Census, Campbell is with his second wife, Eunice Jenkins Campbell, and now third child Sara Su. Edward is listed as a writer/poet for his employment. The family was renting a home on Campside Place, Jackson, MS. He was producing Southern Accent, working as the publicity secretary of the Mississippi Poetry Society, and doing the work of the society-sponsored columns in The Clarion-Ledger and The Daily News. By that winter, Campbell was overseeing classes teaching English to adults via the WPA.

Encountering the Faith and action as a Bahá'í

We don't have a source of Campbell's finding of the Baha'i Faith, his questions and contacts. But Campbell gives his first known Baha'i talk in Little Rock, Arkansas, on January 12, 1946, entitled "A New Heaven and a New Earth". One of the first mentions of Baha'is in Jackson came in September 1943 when Sara Ellen Peake of Louisville, Kentucky, spoke after Margauerite Reimer Sears had spent several months promoting the religion in town. This was succeeded by further meetings into 1945. In 1945, the region's Baha'is held a conference in Jackson, and not long after Juliet Thompson came to give a talk. The only other mentions we have are of his niece visiting in January 1943, and his children visited the Rogers grandparents in June. After his first talk in January, Campbell went to the national convention that May. He was named Secretary of the Jackson assembly for 1946 by the end of the year.

In February 1948, there was a notice he was going to give a talk in Biloxi. That same month there was a notice he was teaching languages, including Spanish, in Jackson. In 1949 there was another regional Baha'i conference, this time held in Gulfport, for which Campbell was the chair, and chaired a public pair of talks by three women. In 1950 Campbell came to New Orleans and gave the opening talk at new New Orleans Baha'i Center for the Birth of Baha'u'llah. After appearing in other locations, January 1951 was Campbell's first locally known appearance for the religion when he chaired a World Religion Day observance in Jackson at the Edwards hotel. That year he also chaired the public meeting of the community for the Brotherhood Week community meeting. And that year would see a series of talks. In April, he made an appearance in Louisville, Kentucky, on "The Eternal Christ", in May he appeared in Atlanta giving the same talk, and June in Memphis again the same talk. That year was also his first known publication, The Books of God are Open. At the time it was a 13-page booklet to serve as a compilation of reference material of some twenty quotes from the Bible and another twenty from the Baha'i Writings about the oneness of the Prophets and the Day in which we live. In November, he was mentioned as Chair of the Jackson Assembly.

His next public appearance was for the mid-October 1952 talk in the Edwards Hotel entitled "The Eternal Quest and the Drama of Salvation". In November he spoke in Austin, Texas, on "The Eternal Christ and the Drama of Salvation". February 5, 1953, Campbell gave a talk in New Orleans entitled "The Generating Impulse and Directional Drive in Creation". A few days later he gave a talk in Dallas, and then in Austin, Texas. Then comes the period of the announcement of the Ten Year Crusade.

Two years later daughter Sara Su was getting married while Campbell was in Uruguay. Eunice Jenkins Campbell was now divorced and Edward paying alimony by court order while he was in Uruguay.

Opening January 1958 Campbell was back in America giving a talk for World Religion Day entitled "The Divinely Ordained Remedy for the Healing of the World", and writing about his trip to Uruguay. A series of newspaper articles by Campbell covered aspects of life in Uruguay were published across June - July. This was followed by Campbell writing about going through Mexico in August.

By June 1960 Campbell gave a talk "God's Surpreme Gift to this Enlightened Age" for the Baton Rouge Race Amity Day overwhelming attended by African-Americans. Race Amity Day observance in Baton Rouge. Campbell was noted having pioneered to South America teaching English at the University of Uruguay, giving talks in many cities of Mexico, writing materials in English and Spanish, presently teaching Spanish at the University of Mississippi Millsaps Center, and serving on the Area Teaching Committee for the Gulf States. By September he assisted the Jackson community event for World Peace Day. In 1961 he resigned from the Area Teaching Committee of the Gulf States. We don't have a date when he joined the committee.

Early June 1963 he gave a talk "The Kingdom of God upon Earth is a Tangible Reality" at the First Unitarian Church in Jackson, and late June he spoke for the Baha'is on "What the Conceivers Concieve". In September he spoke for the community open house meeting for World Peace Day. In October he wrote a letter to the editor as an individual on Christianity vs religion in US culture.

In January 1965 he offered the community World Religion Day talk, the community Race Unity talk in June, and the September World Peace Day talk.

In 1969 he published The Books of God are Open, now some 24 pages long.

Died

Campbell died in November 1984. Several brief obituaries were published. He was buried in the Kosciusko City Cemetery, Attala County, Mississippi, near the old family area. Son Edward R. Campbell survived him was then in Dallas, and daughters Mrs. Martha C. Weatherall of Clinton and Mrs. Su C. McLain of Jackson, and sister Mrs. M. W. Estes of Cruger also lived.

His second wife, Eunice, died in 1988, she was manager for The Baptist Record. 1988 was also when son Edward Rogers died.

Daughter Martha died in 2016. Daughter Sara Su died 2018.