“Despite what seemed an unpopular message at the time, we had the fastest growing Methodist Church in the country. The church didn’t agree with us ideologically, but we made things fun and encouraged people to think.”
– Dr. Barry Bailey, 2022
Harmon Barry Bailey, nicknamed “Pete”, was born in a small Arkansas town in September 1926.
To the quizzical and freckled redheaded boy, life in Hampton was a continuously unfolding experience. Hampton was a town full of gossip, good storytelling, and a deep economic & racial division.
On the brink of the Great Depression, the Baileys moved to Detroit, Michigan where Pete’s father found work with the Otis Elevator company. In the big city, Pete saw his first movie and learned that his dad could sing, as well as run wire. It was also there in Detroit that young Pete first witnessed a contrast to the Jim Crow South.
Between 1931 and 1935, the Bailey family moved from small town to small town, eventually settling in Sheridan, Arkansas. In this time of change and transition, horses and carts shared dirt roads with Ford Model T’s. One constant factor was the prevalent and disturbingly apparent inequality. Observing the racism and prejudice enshrined in laws and traditions heavily impacted Pete, igniting his nascent desire for social change and activism.
A love for words, a dedication to the community, and a no-nonsense approach to doing the right thing.
Naturally oppositional to conventional thinking, he loved learning and remembers wonderful teachers that he occasionally wore out with questions. He didn’t see well, but was blessed with a sharp memory. He engaged in debates with himself as a solitary pastime, surveying as many sides to an issue as he could. Watching road shows, visiting with the carnies, and seeing shows with all male marriage reenactments left lasting impressions.
At age 15, Pete began challenging preconceptions publicly during church meetings. He stood up to question and confront injustices: why wasn’t the money considered good enough, just because it came from the liquor store owner? Why were Black people not allowed to walk on the sidewalk alongside white people? He began working in the lumber yard to build muscle, gaining much more than that. He was a teenager and the only white employee in the yard. Forging friendships with the crew, they talked and laughed as they walked the stacks and lifted three hundred pound logs together. Pete cherished these friendships, and became the only soda jerk at McCoy’s Drug Store asked by the lumberyard workers to serve them. It was a source of pride for young Pete. Just as his mother had, Pete challenged convention and grew within the loving, supportive Bailey family.
Before long, Pete was attending Hendrix College, where his dedication to the promotion of peace and justice grew along with his education. He did not know what he wanted to become but he loved words and was learning they could be powerful. Upon graduating, Pete found himself drawn to helping the community. He took a job as a schoolteacher, first in the town of Redfield, and later in Almyra, Arkansas. Alongside this work, he began to get involved in the local Methodist church, preaching “short talks” to the delight of the congregation. These experiences of community involvement and support led him to pursue seminary, and in 1947 Pete entered the Perkins School of Theology at SMU.
Barry Bailey (still Pete familiarly) eventually became a minister, finding that the values of non-violence, justice & equality resonated with people. He preached to congregations across the south, from Shreveport, Louisiana to Fort Worth, Texas. Many of the churches where he preached swiftly became some of the fastest growing Methodist congregations in the United States. As senior minister of the First United Methodist Church in Fort Worth, he was an early pioneer in services being broadcast on national television. Throughout his storied career, Pete always stuck to his core values, teaching in his ministry that human integrity is what saves us from a self-imposed hell, and that God is a spirit in our lives.