Henry Logan Starks Annual Scholarship Celebration

On February 16, 2023, Memphis Theological Seminary (MTS) will host the 36th Annual Henry Logan Starks Scholarship Event which celebrates the life and witness of the late Dr. Henry Logan Starks, the first African-American professor at MTS. The event pays homage to Dr. Starks’ legacy as a theologian, community leader and activist, and benefits the scholarship endowment in his name. The scholarship dollars generated through the generous support of dinner guests, sponsors, and benefactors are awarded to African-American students who are following the path of Dr. Starks – attaining a theological education. African American students can receive this scholarship EACH semester as long as academic qualifications are met.

In 1964, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Memphis Theological Seminary moved to Memphis from McKenzie, Tennessee. Henry Logan Starks was one of six African-American students to enroll in MTS after its move to Memphis. By welcoming the six students, MTS became one of the first predominantly white institutions in Memphis to admit African-Americans. This was the beginning of a diverse MTS community that continues to flourish and grow.

Dr. Starks was a community activist. He was a vital leader of the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike and a force behind the Black Monday School Boycotts, which merged the support of Memphis students and teachers for sanitation workers. Though tenacious in his passion for the rights and welfare of all people, Starks was dubbed by the community as the “Gentle Giant” because of the quiet dignity and resolute leadership he kept even under the most tumultuous circumstances.

After graduating from MTS, he became the first African-American member of the MTS faculty while continuing to serve as Pastor of St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church. He died on July 4, 1985. As a well-respected leader, beloved pastor, and faculty member, he left a legacy in Memphis and at MTS. The local newspapers described Starks, who coined the phrase “You are somebody,” as “…in the elite class with Dr. Martin Luther King, A. Phillip Randolph, and Medgar Evers.”.