Archives West Finding Aid

Robert E. Hughes (1928-2012) was a life-long civil rights and social justice activist. Born and raised in Gadsden, Alabama, he received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Alabama (1949), and went on to earn a Masters of Divinity from Emory University (1952) and a Masters of Sacred Theology & Social Ethics from Boston University (1967). Hughes met his future wife, Dorothy Swaringen, while at Emory University – the couple married in 1953, and had four children.

Hughes’s first appointment as a Methodist pastor was in 1953, in Rockford, Alabama. Following one year of pastoral work in Rockford, he was appointed the first Executive Director of the Alabama Council on Human Relations. In this role, Reverend Hughes became deeply involved in the South’s civil rights struggle, engaging in the first negotiations between city officials, Dr. Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Improvement Association over the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955. He and his family experienced threats and recriminations for this commitment and work, including the burning of a cross outside the family’s home in Birmingham. In 1960, following publication of Harrison Salisbury’s New York Times pieces regarding race relations in Birmingham, Hughes (who had been named as a source) served jail time for refusing to reveal information about other individuals who were part of the civil rights struggle. He was briefly expelled from the North Alabama Conference of the Methodist Church in consequence, and reinstated on condition of accepting a transfer to serve overseas. Following this incident, Robert and Dorothy Hughes travelled with their family to serve as missionaries in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). There, Hughes’ work and support for human rights resulted in his being declared a “prohibited immigrant” in 1964 – the family then moved to Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), where they remained until 1966.

Upon returning to the United States, Reverend Hughes worked briefly as a Consultant on Southern Africa at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York. He returned to the South in 1967 to promote peace and reconciliation during the desegregation of schools, and took a position in Atlanta, Georgia, with the Department of Justice's Community Relations Service (CRS). This was the beginning of his 27-year career in conciliation and mediation for the Department of Justice.

In 1975, Hughes was assigned to work as a Mediator with the CRS’ Northwest Regional Branch, based in Seattle, Washington. CRS annual reports and mission statements identified the following as its major activity areas: Administration of Justice, Education, and General Community issues. In addition to mediating specific cases of community unrest in the Northwest Region, Hughes was also engaged in creating local and regional programs and initiatives to address general trends in racial or religious violence or discrimination. His work included mediation specific to Native American treaty rights (including fishing rights), community and school-based discrimination cases, and endeavors to counter the emergence of Aryan Nations and other White Supremacist groups. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment (NWCAMH). Hughes served as chair of the NWCAMH’s Monitoring Committee, which collected hate crimes statistics and tracked reports of hate crimes (or bias crimes) across the Northwest.

Following his 1994 retirement from the CRS, Hughes engaged in a wide range of activist and volunteer work within the United Methodist Church. He was appointed Chair of the Board of Church and Society, and Coordinator of the Peace with Justice Program for the Northwest Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. In 2002, as Chair of the Church and Society Board, Hughes visited Israel and Palestine on a two-week trip to foster peace and reconciliation. He urged the United Methodist Church to extend a hand of friendship to Muslim communities during a rash of anti-Muslim harassment and violence following the 9/11 Terrorist Attack in 2001. Other endeavors included work with Washington CeaseFire to combat gun violence, and helping organize a tent city for homeless people in the Seattle area. Reverend Hughes continued to devote his time and skills to social justice and human relations work throughout his retirement years. He passed away on December 9, 2012.