Commissioner Says Pro-Prayer People Also Opposed Desegregation

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (By Chad Tucker, FOX8 News) - Forsyth County Commissioner Walter Marshall stirred the debate over prayer before Forsyth County Commissioners' meetings when he said in a radio interview that people pushing for the right to pray before meetings are the same people who were opposed to desegregation.

Marshall said he was talking about the Christian Right, and particularly southern evangelical Baptists, and how their push to keep prayer before meetings stems from a history of majority bullying and racism.

"The southern fundamentalist, evangelical Baptist during slavery used the Bible to justify slavery, and they used the same Bible to justify segregation during the civil rights movement." Marshall said.