Eugene
Carson Blake (November 7, 1906
ā July 31, 1985) was an American Presbyterian Church leader. From 1954 to 1957
he served as president of the National Council of Churches in the United States; from 1966 to 1972 he served as General
Secretary of the World Council of Churches.
He also helped organize and would subsequently participate in the 1963 March on Washington. Eugene
Carson Blake was born in St. Louis, Missouri on
November 7, 1906, the son of Lulu and Orville Prescott Blake. He graduated
from Princeton University in
1928 with a Bachelor of Arts and
the Princeton Theological
Seminary in 1932 with a Bachelor of Theology. He
would also attend classes at the University of Edinburgh. From
1928 to 1929, he taught at the Forman Christian College in Lahore; from 1935 to 1951, he was the minister of Presbyterian churches in America, holding pastorates at
churches in New York City and Albany, as well as serving as the Senior Minister of Pasadena
Presbyterian Church in Pasadena for eleven
years. From 1951 to 1958, he was stated clerk of the General Assembly of
the PCUSA, and of the United Presbyterian Church until 1966 He served as
the president of the National Council of
Churches from 1954ā1957 and the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches in 1966. Blake retired from
the World Council of Churches in
1972. Blake became a trustee of Princeton Seminary in 1954. Although an
experienced and talented administrator, Eugene Carson Blake is best known for
his forthright stand against racial segregation as
well for his progressive stance on a number of issues affecting Protestant
church denominations. In 1960, he preached a sermon calling for the unification
of a number of major Protestant denominations into one separate church. This
sermon is considered to be the impetus for the 40-year Consultation on Church
Union ecumenical effort to unite ten mainline denominations. In
1963, Martin Luther King Jr.,
Eugene Carson Blake, and eight other civil rights leaders called for a March on
Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. Dr. King, Dr. Blake, and the other organizers
met with President John F. Kennedy at
the White House before the event, and subsequently participated
in the demonstration, marching down Constitution Avenue with
linked arms. At the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. Blake spoke to the marchers
following A. Philip Randolph and
before John Lewis. Martin Luther
King gave his "I Have a Dream"
speech a few minutes later.