Carpenter, Charles Colock Jones, 1920-1969

Born in Augusta, Georgia, on September 2, 1899, Charles Colcock Jones Carpenter was the son of the Rev. Samuel B. Carpenter and Ruth Berrien Jones Carpenter. He received his education in the Augusta Grammar Schools, Lawrenceville Preparatory School (1917), Princeton University (BA, 1921), and Virginia Theological Seminary (BD, 1926). As an army officer he attained the rank of 2^nd Lt. (Infantry) in 1918. From 1931-1936 he served as a chaplain with the 118^th Field Infantry and attained the rank of captain. Carpenter's ministry began in east Georgia in Waycross and Savannah. He came to Birmingham in 1936 as Rector of the Church of the Advent. On April 27, 1938, he was elected Bishop of Alabama. Consecrated June 24, 1938, he served as Bishop until his retirement in 1968 as the senior Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He died in Birmingham on June 29, 1969. The years of Carpenter's service in Birmingham coincide with the Civil Rights Movement, and many of the papers in this collection are concerned with race relations and civil rights issues. Carpenter was one of the eight clergymen addressed in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail.

The collection is divided into parish files, office files, and financial files. The parish files contain routine correspondence between the bishop and the parish priest and the bishop and parishioners concerning such matters as the formation of a new mission, property purchases, new buildings, divorce and remarriage, loss of a priest and calling of a new one. Problems resulting from racial inequality are prominent in these records. The office files include correspondence with dioscean officials and information about church organizations and facilities. A large section of these records is devoted to civil rights incidents and includes correspondence and supplemental material concerning the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The financial files comprise a much smaller collection than the first two described. These records consist of various bequests and trust funds set up for the diocese.

File level guide available in the Archives Department.

Carpenter, Charles Colcock Jones, 1899-1969.
Cathedral Church of the Advent (Birmingham, Alabama).
Civil Rights Movement. Clergy -- Alabama.
Episcopal Church -- Alabama.

Collection Number: 241

Size:

Restrictions: Standard preservation and copyright restrictions.