 On MARCH 28, 1885, the Salvation Army was organized in the United States.
It was begun in England by "General" William Booth in 1865, who conducted meetings among the poor in London's East End slums.
Originally named the Christian Mission, he designed uniforms and adopted a semi-military system of leadership.
Booker
T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute
in Tuskegee, Alabama, received a letter from Major T.C. Marshall, editor
of the Salvation Army's Conqueror magazine, thanking him for favorable
remarks regarding the Salvation Army's goal to "reach African Americans
in the South for God."
Booker T. Washington replied, July 28, 1896:
"I
am very glad to hear that The Salvation Army is going to undertake work
among my people in the southern states. I have always had the greatest
respect for the work of the Salvation Army especially because I have
noted that it draws no color line in religion...
In reaching the
neglected and, I might say, outcasts of our people, I feel that your
methods and work have peculiar value...God bless you in all your
unselfish Christian work for our country."
On December 1, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson remarked to the Salvation Army in New York:
"For
a century now, the Salvation Army has offered food to the hungry and
shelter to the homeless-in clinics and children's homes, through
disaster relief, in prison and welfare work, and a thousand other
endeavors.
In that century you have proved time and again the
power of a handshake, a meal, and a song. But you have not stopped
there. You have demonstrated also the power of a great idea."
President Lyndon Johnson continued:
"The
voice of the Salvation Army has reminded men that physical well-being
is just not enough; that spiritual rebirth is the most pressing need of
our time and of every time; that the world cannot be changed unless men
change. That voice has been clear and courageous-and it has been heard.
Even when other armies have disbanded, I hope that this one will still be on the firing line." |
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