State Rep. Will Dismukes resigns as pastor after speaking at KKK founder’s birthday party

Updated 9:55 AM; Today 8:21 AM

By Greg Garrison
State Rep. Will Dismukes has stepped down as pastor of a Baptist church after the controversy over his speaking appearance at a birthday party for the founder of the Ku Klux Klan.

Dismukes resigned as pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Prattville on July 29 following three days of backlash resulting from a Facebook post highlighting his attendance at the birthday party for KKK founder Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Alabama Baptist reported Wednesday.

Dismukes gave the invocation at the annual birthday party for Confederate General Forrest held July 25 at Fort Dixie in Selma and coincided with ceremonies honoring the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, an Alabama native andlongtimeGeorgia congressman who was a leader in the civil rights movement and was badly beaten at the “Bloody Sunday” march in Selma in 1965.

“Had a great time at Fort Dixie speaking and giving the invocation for Nathan Bedford Forrest annual birthday celebration,” Dismukes posted on Facebook the day after the event. “Always a great time and some sure enough good eating!!”

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Alabama politician resigns as a Southern Baptist pastor after KKK leader’s birthday celebration

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey
7/30/2020, 11:41:53 a.m.

Alabama state Rep. Will Dismukes (R) said this week that he has no plans to resign from his state legislator position amid national calls for him to step down after he attended a private celebration of the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. On Wednesday night, however, he resigned from his job as a Southern Baptist pastor of a rural church.

The national uproar began after Dismukes posted on Facebook that he took part in a celebration of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest the same weekend as ceremonies honoring the life of civil rights leader and congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.) in Alabama. Lewis, who died this month at age 80, had led protesters in a march decades ago across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on “Bloody Sunday” in Selma.

Dismukes, who represents Prattville, gave the invocation July 25 at an annual birthday party for Forrest at a place called Fort Dixie in Selma. Dismukes’s Facebook post was later removed.

The controversy puts the spotlight on how leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention handle issues of racial discrimination when its churches are autonomous. Dismukes’s resignation from Pleasant Hill Baptist Church took place after local Southern Baptist leaders met with him Tuesday.

“We are saddened and grieved to learn of the recent Facebook post by State Representative Will Dismukes who also serves as a bivocational pastor,” five local leaders wrote in a statement. “In the wake of tremendous controversy, we reaffirm our opposition to any kind of racism.”

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