Samuel G. London, Jr., Ph.D.
The Sociopolitical Activism of Warren S. Banfield
Warren St. Claire Banfield, Jr. was born on April 6,
1922, in Charleston, West Virginia, to black Seventh-day
Adventist parents. In 1943, he graduated from Oakwood
Junior College in Huntsville, Alabama. Banfield continued
his studies at Pacific Union College in Angwin, California
where in 1946 he earned a bachelor’s degree in theology.
Three years later, he pursued advanced studies at the
Adventist Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. Following
his ordination in 1951, Banfield became a minister in the
South Atlantic Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. From
1956 to 1962, he pastored the Mount Calvary Seventh-day
Adventist Church in Tampa, Florida. During his tenure,
Banfield took time to address the economic and
sociopolitical needs of the city’s black community. In 1957
and 1958, he served as president of the Tampa Branch of the
NAACP. Banfield also chaired the Industrial Relations
Committee of the Tampa Urban League, which had the
responsibility of finding employment opportunities for the
city’s black residents. In recognition of his service to
the African-American community, he received the NAACP’s
Frontiers of America Community Service Award in 1959 and
1963. In 1962, Banfield moved to Atlanta, Georgia where he
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