Civil rights leader returns to reflect on history

The Rev. Lonnie Branch has experienced his share of struggles.

The first black graduate of Wartburg Theological Seminary in 1971 and the ninth black pastor ordained in the American Lutheran Church, which later became the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, he became a religious pioneer during the civil rights era.

He's written about his experiences in his book, 'Reflections of Light: The Odyssey of a Black American Lutheran Pastor During the Civil Rights Years,” and will discuss his book and reminisce about his early pastoral years in Cedar Rapids during a sermon and discussion today and Sunday at Our Savior's Lutheran Church, 3634 First Ave. NE, in Cedar Rapids.

Branch served as pastor at the Iowa State Men's Reformatory in Anamosa from 1973 to 1976, and his family made Our Savior's Lutheran Church their church home.

Branch, 83, served as a Lutheran pastor for nearly 30 years before retiring in 1999. But serving the church wasn't his initial intention.

Branch was in his 30s and was a husband and father in the late 1960s, working his way up the government ladder as a computer programmer at Hines Veterans Hospital in Hines, Ill. He was at a level 9 on the General Schedule (GS) pay scale, and was due for a promotion to GS11 - a salary increase that would have been tremendously helpful in raising his six children.

Religion wasn't something he really practiced, let alone considered as a vocation.

'I saw what was happening in the 1960s, how tumultuous it was, and I thought, ‘No more of this, God is powerless,' ” Branch says by telephone from his home in Brooklyn Center, Minn. 'Even though my background was religious, my parents and my grandmother were all religious, I left the church and fell away.”

Then, he said, he met the Rev. Fred Downing, who reintroduced him to religion and explained the need for black pastors in the church.

'Things really began to happen during the tumultuous civil rights movement,” Branch says. 'I began to get interested in how the black church was really taking the bull by the horns, so to speak. I saw God working through that, and it became the essence of my desire to do something more than just raise my family.”

Without talking to his wife, Doris, first - the only time he's made a family decision without consulting her in their more than 60 years of marriage - Branch decided to quit his job and go to seminary.

His story is documented in his book and he plans to share more of it during his visit to Cedar Rapids, he said.

The Rev. Lynn L'Abbe, associate pastor at Our Savior's Lutheran Church, coordinated the Branches' visit and said she is excited for the couple to return to the church they considered 'home,” and for many friends to become reacquainted.

'They have a long and wonderful history here. They've been a part of our congregation for a very long time,” she says. 'Even after they left, that relationship has continued through the years.”

As a pastor, she is looking forward to spending time with Branch and hearing his story, as well.

'His book is something else, the walk he had to go through, and that he endured,” she says. 'That's a testament to his faithfulness. It's like walking among legends - it's something we just don't get the opportunity to do very often.”