A building previously named for Paige and Dorothy Patterson at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary will be renamed to honor the school’s first full-time African American professor, Ralph Logan Carson.
Trustees of the Southern Baptist Convention seminary voted to make the change Oct. 11. It signals yet another blow to the legacy of Patterson, who was co-architect of the “conservative resurgence” that captured control of the SBC in a battle waged for two decades beginning in 1979.
A larger-than-life character who is a hero to some and a villain to others, Patterson was unquestionably the single most influential character in SBC life for four decades — until his fall from grace when it was revealed he mishandled information about sexual abuse cases while president at both Southeastern in Wake Forest, N.C., and at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Allegations of financial mismanagement also followed him at Southwestern.
A Southeastern Seminary news release announcing the name change did not use Patterson’s name. It stated simply: “By recommendation of the Campus Planning committee, trustees voted to rename the academic building on the west quad after Ralph Logan Carson, the first full-time African American professor at SEBTS from 1994-2005.”
The building on the West Quad is Patterson Hall.
Dedication of Patterson Hall in 2008.
Southeastern President Danny Akin announced in May that the seminary would begin removing any mention of both Patterson and Johnny Hunt from the campus. Hunt is a former Georgia pastor who this spring resigned as a vice president of the SBC’s North American Mission Board after an investigation found he had made unwanted sexual advances toward a woman several years ago.
Hunt’s name had been associated with an academic chair at Southeastern as well as two primary degree programs.
Patterson and his wife, Dorothy, had been lionized in stained glass at a chapel on the campus of Southwestern Seminary. Those stained glass images were removed from the chapel in 2019.
Patterson remains a highly divisive figure both inside and outside the SBC. He is still admired by some of the convention’s most conservative factions but is loathed by others as the source of schism. He lives on an estate north of Fort Worth.
The Southeastern news release said Carson, the new namesake of the newest building on the seminary campus, “distinguished himself as a faithful professor with strong conservative doctrinal commitments.”
Logan Carson
When Carson died in 2018 at age 86, an obituary in Baptist Press said the professor would be “remembered for his zeal for life, love for teaching Scripture to his students and his humility in serving others.” He taught at Southeastern from 1994 to 2009, having been hired to the faculty by Patterson.
Carson, who was born blind due to malformed retinas, also served as pastor of several churches during his career, including Green-Bethel Baptist Church in Boiling Springs, N.C., during his time at Southeastern. Carson earlier taught for 21 years at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs.
The building formerly known as Paige and Dorothy Patterson Hall was announced in 2005 and completed in 2008. In announcing the construction plans, President Akin said: “The Paige and Dorothy Patterson Hall will be a centerpiece of the academic programs of Southeastern Seminary. The name Paige Patterson stands for excellence in theological education, and this building will house and train a new generation of scholars and ministers who will lead the church in the 21st century in defending the faith once for all delivered to the saints.”
The 20,000-square-foot, $3 million building houses faculty offices, doctoral seminar rooms and classrooms.
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