William Astor Kirk

William Astor Kirk (October 5, 1922 – August 12, 2011) was a professor, author, a church lay leader and a social activist who worked for racial equality, gay rights, and to end segregation in the United Methodist Church.

He also served in the Office of Economic Opportunity, after being appointed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson.

A contemporary of Heman Sweatt he sought equal access to higher education at the University of Texas and eventually was the first African-American to be awarded a political science doctorate by UT.

William Astor "Bill" Kirk was born into poverty on October 5, 1922 in Harleton, an unincorporated community in deeply segregated East Texas.

His parents were Alex And Exella Kirk.

He eagerly anticipated his graduation from the "Friendly School" in the spring of 1938.

In 1940 Kirk graduated from Center Point High School in the east Texas town of Pittsburg, then attended Wiley College in Marshall, Texas.

In the late 1940s Kirk returned to Texas from Howard University and began his career in academia.

In 1942 he moved to Washington, D. C. and began studying political science to earn a B.A. and M.A. at Howard University.

There he worked at a YMCA and as a switchboard operator for the university, where he met his future wife, Vivian Tramble.

Kirk married Vivian Tramble in 1946.

They had two children, William A. Kirk Jr. and Marie Kirk Dunn.

Kirk is the uncle of former Ambassador Ron Kirk.

He was a Christian from an early age and was active in the United Methodist Church.

In 1946 Kirk earned his B.A. degree and was awarded his M.A. degree in 1947.

His first position was in 1947 as an assistant professor of government at Samuel Huston College, in Austin, Texas.

The school later became Huston–Tillotson University.

Kirk was a Fulbright Scholar and attended the London School of Economics and Political Science from 1952 to 1953.

After studying in London in 1953, he became a full professor and the chairman of the government department at Huston–Tillotson.

In 1958 he was the first African-American to earn a doctorate in political science from University of Texas.

In 1959 Kirk helped establish the Citizenship Education Foundation Inc., a non-profit dedicated to public affairs programs of the Department of Social Sciences at Huston–Tillotson.

Working with the CEF, he secured the approval of a $25,000 restricted grant from the Ford Foundation.

Kirk joined the Foundry United Methodist Church in 1984 located in Washington, D.C. and was a very active member for 25 years.

His wife died on March 31, 2010.

Kirk died the following year at Washington Hospital Center.

A memorial was held at Foundry United Methodist Church officiated by the senior pastor, Rev. Dean Snyder.

Kirk was born and reared on a 29-acre farm his father had inherited.

His daily activities included caring for livestock, milking the cows, building the kitchen fire, drawing water from the well, and gathering eggs.

He walked 4 miles to get the mail 3 times a week, picked cotton, hitched the wagon and went with his father to the village each month.

He chopped wood and plowed the fields.

While plowing behind a mule at about 15 years of age he had a very clear "road to Damascus", transformational moment, where he resolved to do something different than farm like his father.

Kirk's immediate family belonged to the Macedonia United Methodist Church in Marion County.

At a regular weekly "revival service" where his grandmother had led him to, he found himself alone on the "mourner's bench".

There, at age 13 and feeling pressure from the visiting preacher he "accepted Christ" and joined the Macedonia church.

Looking back he had no regrets.

Kirk later wrote that this experience contributed to his becoming a leader to eliminate involuntary racial segregation in the United Methodist Church.

He attended the "Friendly School" which had two classrooms.

Upon reaching the 6th grade he moved up to the classroom for grades 6-10 taught by his uncle.

Here he could listen to every classroom discussion and soon became intensely interested in the intellectually challenging subjects of "upper-class" students.

Unlike the schools for "Whites" in the Harrison County School District, Kirk's school had no extracurricular activities, no drama or music classes, and no sports.