Marshall Lorenzo Shepard, Sr. (July 10, 1899 – February 21, 1967) was an AmericanChristian clergyman and politician. Affiliated with theDemocratic Party, his political career was focused in the city ofPhiladelphia.
Born to anAfrican American family inNorth Carolina, he came to Philadelphia to serve as pastor of Mount Olivet Tabernacle Baptist Church, a blackBaptist congregation. He worked as a pastor there for forty years. He gained a national reputation as a preacher, rising to prominence within the denomination. Shepard also became involved in Democratic politics in Philadelphia. He was elected to three terms in thePennsylvania General Assembly and three terms on thePhiladelphia City Council, where he served until his death in 1967.
Shepard was born July 10, 1899, inOxford, North Carolina, the son of Robert Shepard and Pattie Gilliam Shepard.[1] Robert Shepard was born a slave and later became a Baptist minister and the superintendent of theColored Orphanage Asylum of North Carolina.[2] Pattie Shepard was also involved in charitable work and served as the head of the Women's Baptist Home Convention of North Carolina.[3] Marshall Shepard followed his parents in joining the First Baptist Church of Oxford.[4] He attendedSlater State Normal School inWinston-Salem, North Carolina, then received hisDoctor of Divinity in 1921 fromVirginia Union University, ahistorically black university inRichmond, Virginia.[4][5]
After graduation, Shepard moved toNew York City, where he received additional education at theCity College of New York and theUnion Theological Seminary.[6] From 1922 to 1923, he served as secretary for religious work at the 135th Street branch of theYMCA inHarlem.[4] In 1923, he married Willia Lucille Owens, with whom he had two sons.[4] That same year, he was hired as assistant pastor at theAbyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, of whichAdam Clayton Powell Sr. was the pastor.[6]
In 1926, Shepard accepted the position of pastor atMount Olivet Tabernacle Baptist Church inWest Philadelphia, where he would remain for the rest of his life.[4] The church struggled financially, especially after the onset of theGreat Depression in 1929, and several congregation members mortgaged their homes to keep the church afloat.[7] Shepard's reputation as a minister grew, and he served as assistant secretary of theNational Baptist Convention and associate editor of theNational Baptist Voice.[8]
Shepard chaired the National Baptist Convention's Board of Foreign Missions for many years, and in 1947 he was a delegate to the World Baptist Alliance meeting inCopenhagen.[9] Despite his growing renown, he remained dedicated to his Mount Olivet church. His Sunday morning sermons were especially celebrated, and his preaching style drew praise from many contemporaries, includingGardner C. Taylor, who called him "the best extemporaneous preacher the Black race has produced."[9] In 1960, he endorsed SenatorJohn F. Kennedy for president and decried thoseProtestants who would oppose him based on their opposition to hisRoman Catholic faith.[10]
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Shepard's congregation encouraged him to become involved in secular politics, and he held several offices over his lifetime. Running as a member of theDemocratic Party, he was elected to thePennsylvania House of Representatives in 1934 as one of three members from the18th district, along with fellow DemocratsJoseph Ominsky andJohn J. Finnerty. (House members at that time were chosen from multimember districts.)[11] While in the legislature, he co-sponsored a bill that would have banned racial discrimination in state contracting.[12] Shepard was chosen to offer a prayer at the1936 Democratic National Convention, which was held in Philadelphia that year. The sight of a black minister on the podium ledEllison D. Smith, asegregationist Senator representing South Carolina, to storm out of the convention.[9] Shepard's response to the incident was to say "it was just a sign the good brother needs more prayer."[9]
In 1936, Shepard, Ominsky, and Finnerty were all reelected to the legislature.[13] The following year, he was appointed to a commission charged with drafting a new city charter for Philadelphia, but the resulting document was rejected by the voters at the polls that November.[8] He was not a candidate for reelection in 1938, but in 1940 he ran again and was elected along with Finnerty andSamuel Rose.[14] After that term ended, PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt appointed Shepardrecorder of deeds in Washington, D.C., a position he held until 1951.[15] At that time, Shepard andMary McLeod Bethune were the only two black people in government service in the nation's capital.[9]
Shepard resigned from his federal post to run in the1951 election in Philadelphia. The Democrats nominated him for the recorder of deeds post which, unlike the Washington position, was elected by the voters.[16] He was victorious in the election, winning as a part of a Democratic wave that swept theRepublican Party from power for the first time in 67 years.[17] The job, a former county-level position, was eliminated and the department consolidated into city government in 1953.[9] Shepard was named to the equivalent civil service position, Commissioner of Records, after the consolidation.[9]
In 1955, Shepard ran for an at-large seat on thePhiladelphia City Council.[18] By the rules of thelimited voting system for the at-large seats, each political party could nominate five candidates and voters could only vote for five, with the result being that the majority party could only take five of the seven seats, leaving two for the minority party. Shepard won one of the five Democratic slots and was easily elected.[18] On the council, he served as head of the public works committee.[5] In 1956, charter amendments aimed at weakening civil service protections were proposed. Shepard initially opposed the change, but later voted in favor after party leaders promised him more black Democrats would get political appointments.[19] The amendments found the required two-thirds vote in Council to make it on to the ballot for popular approval but failed in a vote that April.[20]
Shepard was reelectedin 1959 and againin 1963.[9] In February 1967, he underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor.[5] Three weeks later, he died at theUniversity of Pennsylvania Hospital at the age of 67.[5] After a funeral at his church, he was buried inOxford, North Carolina.[5] His son, Marshall Jr., went on to lead the Mount Olivet Church until his death in 2002.[7] In 2008, thePhiladelphia Housing Authority opened a new housing development near the church, which they named after Shepard.[21]
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