Ed Ramage

Edward Vandiver Ramage born October 2, 1908 in Weaverville, North Carolina; died December, 1981 in Arkansas) was the pastor of First Presbyterian Church from 1946 to 1963 and one of the co-signers of the letter, "A Call for Unity", to which Martin Luther King, Jr responded with his "Letter from Birmingham Jail.

Ramage was one of three children born to Samuel Johnson and Elizabeth Jane Vandiver Ramage of North Carolina. His father, a trained vocalist, had moved from Pennsylvania to North Carolina to pursue a career in the lumber industry. When he died in 1917 Mrs Ramage raised the children herself. Edward became interested in the ministry during summer camps at Montreat and attended Davidson College, Emory University and the Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, where he earned a Doctorate of Divinity in 1932.

With paid posts scarce in the midst of the Great Depression, Ramage lived off bread crusts and was allowed to remain living in the Seminary's dormitory through the summer. He hitchhiked his way back into the mountains and found work in an auto repair shop. In September he finally received an offer to split time at three churches all in the vicinity of Rome, Georgia.

References

• Bass, S. Jonathan (2001) Blessed Are The Peacemakers: Martin Luther King, Jr., Eight White Religious Leaders, and the "Letter from Birmingham Jail". Baton Rouge: LSU Press. ISBN 0807126551