Defending and Legally Establishing the Good News (1950)

[The Librarian]

1950_Defending_And_Legally_Establishing_The_Good_News.pdf

Audio Files:

1978 Hayden Covington Interviewed By Jerry Murray Interview with Hayden C. Covington, former Watchtower Attorney on November 19, 1978. Covington represented Jehovah's Witnesses in several Supreme Court cases dealing with freedom of religion and freedom of press in the 1940s. He was also Vice President of the Watchtower Society from 1942 to 1945. Covington died two days after giving this interview. 

"They Oppose Freedom of Worship," by Hayden C. Covington. Talk given at the 1953 International Assembly of Jehovah's Witnesses"They Oppose Freedom of Worship," by Hayden C. Covington. Audio lecture given at the 1953 International Assembly of Jehovah's Witnesses. At the time, Covington was Chief Legal Counsel of Jehovah's Witnesses and had served as Vice President of the Watchtower Society in the 1940s. Covington helped secure several key legal victories for Jehovah's Witnesses before the Supreme Court of the United States in the 1940s.


Read a copy of Covington's employment resume written after he left Bethel and his death certificate

1977-78_Hayden_Covingtons_Resume_and_Death_Certificate.pdf

When I was in Bethel, I received a copy of Covington's resume and death certificate from a JW in California by the name of Jeannie Sears. She had been Covington's friend and secretary of sorts for a few years before he died and I think they both lived in the same apartment complex. Jean's deceased husband had been a former Bethelite who had been Covington's friend when they both were in Bethel in the 1950s and it's through him that Jeannie met Hayden.

Interestingly, Covington wrote his memoir shortly before he died and shared it with Jeannie. She told me she was horrified when she read what he said about the organization and talked him out of publishing it. Later she watched him burn it in the yard. Jeannie never told me what was in that memoir and probably has died taking Covington's secrets with her to the grave.

Hayden Covington (1911 - 1978)

Hayden Covington was born in Hopkins County, Texas, in 1911. Around the time that he was studying for his law degree, he became involved with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. He defended some Witnesses in the San Antonio area and was eventually invited by the Witness leadership to New York. He joined the organization’s legal counsel in 1939 and served until 1963. In that time as the Witnesses’ attorney, Covington is said to have presented 111 petitions and appeals to the Supreme Court, and he won well above 80% of the 44 cases he brought before the Court. The cases dealt with issues ranging from compulsory flag-salute statutes, to street preaching, to door-to-door literature distribution. Later in his career Covington assisted prize-fighter Muhammad Ali in obtaining a draft exemption as a Muslim minister. Covington’s role as lawyer for the Jehovah’s Witnesses is recounted in Shawn Francis Peters’ Judging Jehovah's Witnesses: Religious Persecution and the Dawn of the Rights Revolution (2002).

“Determined to Keep Close to the Lord”

It was Brother Rutherford’s heartfelt wish that Jehovah’s Witnesses declare the good news without letup. So in mid-December 1941, several weeks before his death, he called together four directors of the two principal legal corporations used by Jehovah’s Witnesses and suggested that as soon after his death as possible, all the members of the two boards be called in joint session and a president and a vice president be elected.

On the afternoon of January 13, 1942, just five days after Rutherford’s death, all the board members of the two corporations met jointly at Brooklyn Bethel. Several days earlier, the Society’s vice president, 36-year-old Nathan H. Knorr, had suggested that they earnestly seek divine wisdom by prayer and meditation. The board members recognized that while the brother elected president would administer the legal affairs of the Watch Tower Society, he would also serve as a principal overseer of the organization. Who had the needed spiritual qualifications for this weighty responsibility in caring for Jehovah’s work? The joint meeting was opened with prayer, and after careful consideration, Brother Knorr was unanimously elected president of the two corporations and 30-year-old Hayden C. Covington, the Society’s lawyer, vice president.

Later that day, W. E. Van Amburgh, the Society’s secretary-treasurer, announced to the Bethel family the results of the election. R. E. Abrahamson, who was present on that occasion, recalled that Van Amburgh said: ‘I can remember when C. T. Russell died and was replaced by J. F. Rutherford. The Lord continued to direct and prosper His work. Now, I fully expect the work to move ahead with Nathan H. Knorr as president, because this is the Lord’s work, not man’s.’

How did the Bethel family members in Brooklyn feel about the results of the election? A touching letter from them dated January 14, 1942, the day after the election, answers: “His [Rutherford’s] change shall not slow us up in the performance of the task the Lord has assigned to us. We are determined to keep close to the Lord and to one another, firmly pushing the battle to the gate, fighting shoulder to shoulder. . . . Our intimate association with Brother Knorr for approximately twenty years . . . enables us to appreciate the Lord’s direction in the choice of Brother Knorr as president and thereby the loving watch-care of the Lord over His people.” Letters and cablegrams of support soon poured into headquarters from around the world.

There was no feeling of uncertainty as to what to do. A special article was prepared for the February 1, 1942, Watchtower, the very same issue that announced the death of J. F. Rutherford. “The final gathering by the Lord is on,” it declared. “Let nothing for one instant interrupt the onward push of his covenant-people in His service. . . . Now to hold fast our integrity toward the Almighty God is the ALL-IMPORTANT thing.” Jehovah’s Witnesses were urged to continue declaring the good news with zeal.

But ‘holding fast their integrity’ was a real challenge in the early 1940’s. The world was still at war. Wartime restrictions in many parts of the earth made it difficult for Jehovah’s Witnesses to preach. Arrests and mob action against the Witnesses continued unabated. Hayden Covington, as the Society’s legal counsel, directed the legal fight, sometimes from his office at Brooklyn headquarters and sometimes from trains as he traveled caring for legal cases. Working with local lawyers, such as Victor Schmidt, Grover Powell, and Victor Blackwell, Brother Covington fought hard to establish the constitutional rights of Jehovah’s Witnesses to preach from house to house and to distribute Bible literature without restraint from local officials.

- Declaring the Good News Without Letup (1942-1975)

As the intensity of house-to-house witnessing increased, however, so did attempts to apply laws to abridge or prohibit it. Not all lands have legal provisions that make it possible to secure freedoms for minorities in the face of official opposition. But Jehovah’s Witnesses knew that the U.S. Constitution guaranteed freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. So, when judges construed local ordinances in such a way as to hinder the preaching of God’s Word, the Witnesses appealed their cases to the higher courts.

In reviewing what took place, Hayden C. Covington, who had a prominent role in legal matters for the Watch Tower Society, later explained: “Had the thousands of convictions entered by the magistrates, police courts and other lower courts not been appealed, a mountain of precedent would have piled up as a giant obstacle in the field of worship. By appealing we have prevented the erection of such obstacle. Our way of worship has been written into the law of the land of the United States and other countries because of our persistence in appealing from adverse decisions.” In the United States, scores of cases went all the way to the Supreme Court.

Strengthening the Guarantees of Freedom

One of the first cases involving the ministry of Jehovah’s Witnesses to reach the Supreme Court of the United States originated in Georgia and was argued before the Court on February 4, 1938. Alma Lovell had been convicted in the recorder’s court of Griffin, Georgia, of violating an ordinance that prohibited the distribution of literature of any kind without a permit from the city manager. Among other things, Sister Lovell had offered people the magazine The Golden Age. On March 28, 1938, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the ordinance was invalid because it subjected freedom of the press to license and censorship.

The following year J. F. Rutherford, as attorney for the petitioner, presented arguments to the Supreme Court in the case of Clara Schneider v. State of New Jersey. This was followed, in 1940, by Cantwell v. State of Connecticut, for which J. F. Rutherford drafted the legal brief and Hayden Covington presented oral argument before the Court. The positive outcome of these cases buttressed the constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. But there were setbacks.

- ‘Defending and Legally Establishing the Good News’, WTB&TS
How the Governing Body Differs From a Legal Corporation

 

ANNUAL meetings of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania have been held since January of 1885. When the ingathering of anointed Christians was underway in the late 19th century, the directors and officers of this corporation had the heavenly hope. In fact, this has almost always been the case.

There was one exception. In 1940, Hayden C. Covington—then the Society’s legal counsel and one of the “other sheep,” with the earthly hope—was elected a director of the Society. (John 10:16) He served as the Society’s vice president from 1942 to 1945. At that time, Brother Covington stepped aside as a director to comply with what then seemed to be Jehovah’s will—that all directors and officers of the Pennsylvania corporation be anointed Christians. Lyman A. Swingle replaced Hayden C. Covington on the board of directors, and Frederick W. Franz was elected vice president.

Why did Jehovah’s servants believe that all the directors and officers of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania should be anointed Christians? Because at the time, the board of directors and officers of the Pennsylvania corporation were closely identified with the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, which has always been made up entirely of spirit-anointed men.

- Jan. 15, 2001 Watchtower, WTB&TS

References from web to this book

Judging Jehovah's Witnesses

The University Press of Kansas publishes scholarly and regional books that contribute to the understanding of Kansas, the Great Plains, and the Midwest

www.kansaspress.ku.edu/petjud.html
JSTOR: Judging Jehovah's Witnesses: Religious Persecution and the **...**

JUDGING JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES: RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION AND THE DAWN OF THE RIGHTS REVOLUTION. By Shawn Francis Peters. Lawrence, Kan: University Press of Kansas ...

links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0748-0814(2001)16%3A2%3C547%3AJJWRPA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-E
Vol. 10 No. 6 (June 2000) pp. 390-393. JUDGING JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES **...**

JUDGING JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES: RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION AND THE DAWN OF THE RIGHTS REVOLUTION by Shawn Francis Peters. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, ...

www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/lpbr/subpages/reviews/peters.htm
Judging Jehovah's Witnesses: Religious Persecution and the Dawn of **...**

Peters, Shawn Francis Judging Jehovah's Witnesses: Religious Persecution and the Dawn of the Rights Revolution Lawrence: University Press of Kansas 342 pp., ...

findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3341/is_200006/ai_n8053293
Judging Jehovah's Witnesses: Religious Persecution and

Judging Jehovah's Witnesses: Religious Persecution and the Dawn of the Rights Revolution. From: Journal of Church and State | Date: 1/1/2002 | Author: Smith ...

www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-85033374.html
Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States **...**

Judging Jehovah's Witnesses: Religious Persecution and the Dawn of the Rights Revolution. ^ Radio discourse, October 6, 1935 as cited in Jehovah's ...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Jehovah's_Witnesses_in_the_United_States
SSRN-Demythologizing the Legal History of the Jehovah's Witnesses **...**

Shawn Francis Peters' Judging Jehovah's Witnesses: Religious Persecution and the Dawn of the Rights Revolution is the most recent, and broadest, ...

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1005705
| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.2 | The **...**

Judging Jehovah's Witnesses: Religious Persecution and the Dawn of the Rights Revolution. By Shawn Francis Peters. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, ...

www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/88.2/br_100.html
UNH Magazine Spring 01--Book Reviews

By Anne Downey '95G. (Book titles are linked to online booksellers. Also check Dimond Library's online card catalog for these titles) ...

unhmagazine.unh.edu/sp01/bookssp01.html
Jehovah's Witnesses: Guardians of Free Expression by Stephanie **...**

... closely enough before, according to Shawn Peters, author of Judging Jehovah's Witnesses: Religious Persecution and the Dawn of the Rights Revolution. ...

docket.medill.northwestern.edu/archives/000039.php

[TrueTomHarley]

On 5/14/2017 at 5:02 PM, The Librarian said:

“Had the thousands of convictions entered by the magistrates, police courts and other lower courts not been appealed, a mountain of precedent would have piled up as a giant obstacle in the field of worship. By appealing we have prevented the erection of such obstacle. Our way of worship has been written into the law of the land of the United States and other countries because of our persistence in appealing from adverse decisions.” In the United States, scores of cases went all the way to the Supreme Court.

I like these words of Covington. I like, too, the stable country that is the U.S. that would steadfastly allow itself to be reigned in by its own constitution. (this may be eroding somewhat, but it is still the pre-eminent example)

Unfortunately, there are also unstable countries, and some that are regressing, who, when you tell them of their own constitution, say: "Oh yeah! Great paper! We have it in the men's room for drying hands." #stopjwban

I love Blackwell's book. I quote from it in my own, and in the one to come. I got mine on a 'book tour' - when he was top-billed speaker for a special meeting at the Niagara Falls convention center. Another was our circuit overseer, Dave McClure, son of Lucy McClure of the case that reversed Gobitas. He told of getting beat up walking to and fro school. As only Dave McClure could do, he made getting beat up almost sound like fun.

The remaining speaker was someone I don't remember who rattled on about health, spouting opinion that would never happen today. "If you're not sick, don't go to them!" I remember him saying about doctors. I also remember McClure, who was sitting near me, say loudly after the talk: "Well, I guess I'm gonna go down there and get me a hot dog!"

These were back in the days when "each one did what was right in his own eyes."

McClure is (while I am in story-telling mode) the one who fell asleep while I was conducting a study and he was following along. He dropped his book, which woke him up. (he was a diabetic, and afternoons were not easy for him)

Later the two of us stopped at the home of a new person who asked who conducts the study when a publisher asks the C.O. along. He said: "Weelll, I just check beforehand with the brother, and if he wants me to conduct it, I do. But if he says he would rather conduct it himself, then I just nod.....

He is also the one (from my other post) who would make the sign of the stake. In my single days, I used to stick like glue to these guys. I was his chauffer when he visited our congregation, and he sat in his Chrysler's back seat.