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Activist Minister Francis B. Sayre Dies At 93

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The New York Times

Published: October 14, 2008

The Very Rev. Francis B. Sayre Jr., who in his 27 years as dean of the National Cathedral in Washington raised his sonorous voice against McCarthyism, segregation, poverty and the Vietnam War while presiding over construction of the cathedral's majestic Gloria in Excelsis Tower, died Oct. 3 at his home on Martha's Vineyard, Mass. He was 93.

Sayre - a lanky, elegant man who was born in the White House while his grandfather, Woodrow Wilson, was president - first climbed into the pulpit of the monumental cathedral in northwest Washington in 1951.

Soon after, and well before the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, he was calling for an end to school segregation.

Discrimination was a recurring theme for Sayre. In a 1957 sermon, as the civil rights movement gained momentum, he urged his parishioners to join the struggle.

In March 1965, Sayre joined the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the voting-rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala.

When Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin was railing about communist influence in the country in the 1950s, Sayre was not afraid to denounce him.

In a 1954 sermon, he called McCarthy one of a crew of "pretended patriots" and said, "There is a devilish indecision about any society that will permit an impostor like McCarthy to caper out front while the main army stands idly by."

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