Theressa Hoover (left) and her father, James Hoover, are shown in these undated courtesy photos. In 1972, Theressa Hoover gave an invited lecture at Harvard’s Divinity School titled “Triple Jeopardy,” where she said, “While all women suffer depression because of gender, African American women also suffer depression because of their race.” Those were twin layers of oppression. The third layer for Black women, Hoover said, was the church. The lecture critiqued Black male theology and control of Black churches. James Hoover, who was the chief maintenance man and groundskeeper at Fayetteville's old City Hospital, was honored with the naming of a wing of the hospital after him. James Hoover was described as a dedicated employee who was well-respected in the community, someone who spent most of his day doing electrical work but could also set bones. (Left, General Commission on Archives and History of the United Methodist Church; right, Shiloh Museum of Ozark History)
The leadership of the United Methodist Church ministries throughout the 1940s, '50s and '60s was not all male, white and/or conservative. Among the most effective leaders the denomination had was Theressa Hoover, a Black woman from Arkansas who was fiercely feminist, in favor of birth control, supportive of abortion and...
