A “Byte” of Baptist History
FBI Shadowed SBTS Professor for 17 Years

By Robert L. Richardson

In 1957, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began covert surveillance of Dr. Henlee Barnette, Professor of Christian Ethics at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. His office and home phones were tapped, his classes were monitored, his travels were recorded, his daily activities were cataloged, and some of his mail was open when delivered. These secret operations were conducted unknown to Dr. Barnette for almost twelve years.1.1

Apparently this classified investigation was prompted when Barnette traveled to the Soviet Union in the summer of 1957 with a small group led by Dr. Jerome Davis, former Professor of Ethics at Yale Divinity School. Davis, who had lived and worked in the Soviet Union with prisoners of war, and who was personally acquainted with Lenin, Stalin, and Khrushchev, was already under scrutiny by the FBI for being a suspected communist.1.1

During their visit to Moscow, Davis and the group had an audience with Nikita Khrushchev. Barnette’s picture was taken shaking hands with the Communist leader.2.1 When this photograph hit the American newspapers, Barnette was immediately branded by Baptist fundamentalists as a communist.1.1

There were others reasons for the FBI surveillance. Barnette’s relationship with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which was a key in getting King to deliver the Julian Brown Gay Lectures at the Seminary in 1961, added to the scrutiny of the FBI.1.2 In 1964, Barnette published a book entitled, “An Introduction to Communism.” This publication only poured fuel on the FBI “fires” of surveillance.1.1

In the spring of 1969, the FBI moved from covert surveillance to a pattern of open harassment.

This was triggered when Dr. Barnette’s son, Wayne, openly protested the Viet Nam War, became a “draft-dodger,” and fled the country for Sweden.2.2

The FBI began frequent unannounced visits to Barnette’s home for lengthy interrogations. An agent was assigned to stand occasionally outside his classroom door and listen to his lectures. An intense round of questioning followed each visit. Phone calls from the FBI to both his office and home increased significantly.

This same pattern of harassment continued when Barnette was on sabbatical to teach one year at the University of Florida.1.1 These annoyances did not subside when he returned to his post at Southern.

The Barnettes did not take all this “sitting down.” Frequently, they were “on their feet” giving instructions to the agents not to come to their home or call their home, but to contact Henlee at his office. They protested the unexpected visits that sometimes involved hours of interrogation and frequently interrupted their plans. Occasionally, Barnette challenged the agents by saying, “These are the same old stupid questions I have been asked over and over again.”2.1

On one occasion, the FBI unexpectedly showed up at the back door of their temporary home in Florida explaining that the front screen door was locked. The screen door had no lock. This time Barnette’s wife, Helen, “launched into the agent with such a severe ‘talking to’” that Barnette “actually began to feel sorry for him.”2.3

On another occasion, Barnette hid a tape recorder in his desk drawer and taped the interrogation. Toward the end of the session, Barnette informed the agent of his taping. The agent erupted in a fit of anger, and started to storm out of the room, only to have Barnette laugh at his outburst and remind him of how it feels to be on the other end of secret surveillance.2.2

Though frustrated and angered many times, Barnette seemed to take the harassment in stride. He recalled “resorting to my foundational pedagogical principle — listen both to those with whom you agree and disagree.”2.3 As a result, he invited the regional supervisor of the FBI, who was in charge of Barnette’s surveillance, to address his Christian Ethics class.

In early 1974, a court ruled that Barnette’s son had been illegally drafted because of a technicality in procedures. The Kentucky Attorney General welcomed Wayne back without prejudice or conditions. Soon after, the FBI informed Barnette that they had ended all efforts to investigate him.2.3

Sources including quotes:
1Armour, R. Perspectives on Christian Ethics: Essays in Honor of Henlee Hulix Barnette. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. 1991. 1.1p.39. 1.2 p.40
2Barnette, H. A Pilgrimage of Faith: My Story. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. 2004. 2.1 p. 96. 2.2 p. 99. 2.3 p. 100.

Robert Richardson is professor emeritus of Mercer University and a former volunteer staff member in the University’s Center for Baptist Studies. For additional information on Baptist history and heritage, log on to the Mercer University Web site and click on “Center for Baptist Studies.”