Key Civil Rights Moment Was Local, Moorestown Pastor Conveys

MOORESTOWN, NJ — When Jonathan Leath and George Bowen founded Converge Church, one of their goals was to de-segregate Sunday mornings. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously told “Meet the Press” in 1960 that 11 a.m. Sunday morning was the most segregated time of the week in Christian America.

Converge is a non-denominational Christian church who brings together worshippers of different cultures and races. This year, Leath paid tribute to King with a story he only recently learned. In the 1950s, King and three friends were driving down Route 73 from Philadelphia to Boston when they decided to stop for a drink at a local bar that no longer exists today.

“They asked for a beer, and the bartender told them they don’t serve beer on Sundays,” Leath told Patch on Tuesday. “So Dr. King asked for an orange soda. The bartender said no and pulled out a gun. He shot out the front door.”

At that point, King and his friends left the bar and went to file a police report. That’s also the moment King decided he would get involved in the Civil Rights Movement. The rest, as they say, is history.

“It’s not something you want your town to be known for, for an incident that sparked one of the great Civil Rights leaders to get involved in the movement,” Leath said. “Even with all the advances we’ve made, there are still things that happen right under our noses.”

Leath originally told that story the weekend of the church’s Martin Luther King service. One person who heard it and was touched was Moorestown Councilwoman Lisa Petriello.

“History happens all around us,” Petriello said. “Who’d think that we would be so close to a seminal event that motivated a great leader to become involved. It’s a fascinating story.”

In 2015, an activist uncovered a piece of evidence that supports its legitimacy. Social activist Patrick Duff found a police report in which the bartender was arrested shortly after the alleged incident was to have happened on June 12, 1950, according to a South Jersey Local News report. Ernest Nicholas was charged with refusal to serve beverages, intimidation by a weapon and use of obscene language. Nicholas went on a crusade to get a landmark in the area.

After uncovering the story, Leath went to the spot and found a plaque that commemorates the incident.

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right,” the plaque quotes King.

It continues:

“That time came after a young seminary student, MLK and his friends were denied service one Sunday evening in 1950 in Mary’s Cafe in Maple Shade, NJ. Dr. King would later recall the incident as the pivotal moment that inspired and ultimately led to his position in the Civil Rights Movement. It is here where we preserve the history and honor Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Maple Shade, NJ.”

Burlington County put the plaque up in 2012, but you don’t hear much about it, Leath said.

“It’s less than a mile from our church,” Leath said. “ … It’s surprising history happened this close to me, and I never knew about it.”

The area has seen its share of activists fighting for equal rights. Moorestown resident Alice Paul was a vocal leader of women's suffrage movement, which concluded with the ratification of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote on Aug. 18, 1920.

See related: Cultures Converge At Integrated Moorestown Church