Dr. John M. Perkins on Faith and Service
Excerpted from interview conducted by me on January 23, 2021. For the full transcript, visit the original post: John M. Perkins interview
Reflections on Military Service
Dr. John M. Perkins in his service uniform.
John M. Perkins:
My military service doesn't match anything that's bad for me. It was a time when my brother Clyde went in—that's a whole different climate from when I went in. The poverty I left in Mississippi, even though I was drafted in California, my military experience, as I look deeply back on it, was all good.
I was in the military when I believe it was when—yes, I went into the service as part of the first integrated military from California. The boys I went in with, I think I might've been 19 or 20 when I went in, I don't know today. They were drafted from California, went in from L.A., went to Fort Ord for our training. Many of those other people who were with me went to Camp Roberts, right between Fort Ord and L.A. We went in as the first integrated group after Truman integrated the Army. The military had the power to do that. The schools and everybody in the military are under somebody else.
Integration and Leadership
John M. Perkins:
If you would get me to overall look at the military—yes, even right today, the United States just confirmed a Black person as the top military leader. So I got out of it. I was not a Christian when I went in. I had grown up in Mississippi and escaped to California as an angrier Black, at least against all Mississippi people.Glassdoor+2sites.lib.jmu.edu+2SI+2
When I got to California, the years before I went in were a great experience for me just as an individual civilian. I tell a story about starting in mechanization and being among the first people in. When the center was set up, I ended up becoming the lead man and eventually a union leader within the organization. I was going to become a businessman for the company, but I saw the need for a sense of equality. It wasn't a big conflict; even though we led a little work stoppage, we were not punished, neither was I fired. But I left management to get out of the union.The Inspiration Lab+4CEO.com+4sites.lib.jmu.edu+4
Post-Service Life and Faith
John M. Perkins:
My experience—what I'm actually saying—is that these were opportunities, not with somebody who was a radical, but somebody who benefited from them. My company benefited from me. After I got out of the military, I used my GI Bill in California to buy a house. I came back to Mississippi and used it to buy a house.Indeed+4Glassdoor+4Glassdoor+4
I just got out of the hospital back in December. I went yesterday—one year to get my examination—but I was operated on at the VA hospital. So my experience as a Christian—see, I became a Christian after I got out. So my experience, I look back in gratitude.
On Racism and Forgiveness
John M. Perkins:
I don't think the military had anything to do with my brother being killed. It was an environment as racist in the community. So I would not put any of that—my hands up are with the military.
My heart beats because I think even in the state we were in coming up—in a racist situation, but segregated—we saw and looked for the day when America would live up to its creed. When the Civil Rights Movement was good, now we welcome the Civil Rights Movement. Sometimes I talk to white folks in the South and around the United States. They ask me, "When did you join the Civil Rights Movement?" like they have something against it. I don't have anything against the Civil Rights Movement. I would be an absolute fool to turn against somebody who delivered me from the kind of slavery.
But I'm not also mad with white folk. I think Christianity has helped me to understand the forgiveness of sin and what brings about genocide when you don't forgive each other. My biblical faith teaches that all sin can be forgiven. All sins are against God, but all of that was meant to be against God—blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. Do you see what I'm talking about?
