LAKELAND, Fla. — Earl Stallings, former pastor of First Baptist Church, Birmingham, in Birmingham Baptist Association, and one of the eight white clergy Martin Luther King addressed in his Letter From Birmingham Jail, died Feb. 23 in Lakeland, Fla. He was 89.
Stallings served as pastor of First, Birmingham, from 1961 until 1965. He upset many segregationists in his own congregation by allowing blacks to attend the worship services before he ultimately moved to serve as pastor of First Baptist Church, Marietta, Ga.
Stallings was pastor of Ridgedale Baptist Church, Chattanooga, Tenn., and First Baptist Church, Ocala, Fla., before accepting his Birmingham pastorate. A denominational leader, he was president of the Florida Baptist Convention in 1956–1957 and a member of the Southern Baptist Radio and Television Commission from 1956 until 1961, serving as chair of the “Baptist Hour” radio program. After leaving First, Marietta, Stallings served as director of Christian Social Ministries for Arizona Baptists in Sun City West, Ariz.
He was a graduate of Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tenn., and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. In 2001, Samford University in Birmingham gave him an honorary doctorate degree.
Stallings is survived by a son and two grandchildren.
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