When Warren H. Stewart Sr. first came to Phoenix nearly 50 years ago from New York City, his plan was to stay for a few years and then go back.
He’d been in school there and figured he’d get some experience in the Valley before heading back East.
After 48 years leading the First Institutional Baptist Church of Phoenix, Stewart says he’s glad God didn’t answer that prayer and that he didn’t leave Arizona.
Stewart, who has a doctor of ministry degree, is the church’s senior pastor. He’ll be giving his final sermon this Sunday before retiring.
He’s been a leader in the civil rights movement in Arizona — including in the fight for the state to establish a holiday honoring Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Stewart stopped by KJZZ's studios recently to talk about his nearly five decades in Phoenix — including why he’s decided to hang it up now.
Full interview
WARREN H. STEWART SR.: Well, I've been working at the same address for 48 years and as I tell people, well pastor, why are you retiring? I am tired, I am tired. I love pastoring. I love people. I love working in the community, but I am tired.
MARK BRODIE: What does retirement look like for you?
STEWART: R-E-S-T first. I want to rest first, but also I have a couple of books in my head I want to get out that I haven't had time to put onto paper. And at this season in my life I want to mentor, I want to use my experiences or allow those to be used by other leaders, coming on. I strongly support what is called servant leadership where you're outpour to help other people, not just yourself, and so I want to be able to maybe advise and counsel and mentor other leaders coming on.
BRODIE: You mentioned that you've been almost five decades at the same address, and I'm curious when you look around this city and this community, a lot has changed over those 50 years.
STEWART: When I came here, there was one freeway, the Black Canyon Freeway. Yes, yes, and so I think there are about 500,000 people in Phoenix proper then. Now it's the fifth-largest city in the nation.
BRODIE: What to you stands out as the biggest change, maybe the biggest change that you've seen from the pulpit at your church?
STEWART: Well, Phoenix has become more diverse. The people of color population has continued to grow, even African Americans, but this city, this state has really changed over the last half century, for the better, I believe. You know, we get a lot of bad press, we've gotten a lot of bad press over the years because of who has been in leadership in government in the past.
But I often tell people, well, how can you live in Arizona? I said, well in Arizona you can live where you want, you if you can pay the mortgage, you can live where you want, you can marry who you want, you can do just about what you want in Arizona and so don't let the negative press of a few political leaders make you think that the whole state is like that.
BRODIE: Do you think some of the politics may be overshadowed what was going on sort of below the surface here?
STEWART: Yes, I mean, during the whole Martin Luther King holiday fight, I mean, we became the Alabama of the 1980s, but that is not the existence, the segregation like they had in Alabama, never. It didn't exist here, but again, because the political leadership, former Governor Evan Mecham and others who just kept disrespecting and saying Martin King doesn't need his own holiday. It gave the image that the whole state thought like that.
BRODIE: I want to ask you about that because you had a big role in twice trying to get a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday approved in Arizona. When you look back on that time now, like what, what do you remember? What comes to mind for you?
STEWART: Well, what we had to do, Mark, we had to educate, enlighten and inspire Arizonans. Now, even though President Reagan signed into law the federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., some of us were naive to think that, well, if a Republican president signed it into law, the Republican state Legislature here will follow their leader.
That did not happen because what we found out that many people in Arizona, non-Black people, thought that the King holiday was a Black holiday. And we were even told as we were fighting, well, there are only 3% or 4% of you here, so we don't need a holiday, a Black holiday here.
And so we had to enlighten, educate and inspire people that what George Washington was to this nation in the 18th century, leading the Revolutionary War, what Abraham Lincoln was fighting the Civil War over slavery and keeping the nation together, in the 19th century, that Martin King was that kind of leader, revolutionary leader for nonviolence on behalf of liberty and justice for all, trying to get this nation in the 20th century to practice what we preach.
BRODIE: It sounds like, and based on history, it sounds like that was not the maybe the easiest lesson to get across at that time.
STEWART: No, not here in Arizona. I mean, it, it, it took, it took certainly eight, uh, six and a half years from May 18, 1986, when Governor Babbitt, then-Governor Babbitt, signed the executive order for King Holiday in the pulpit of the First Institution Baptist Church. I was the pastor there then. And then Governor Evan Mecham rescinded it in January of 1987. So from 1986 to 1992, we had to fight for a holiday. It was passed in the Legislature, two different versions, overturned by referendum, put on the ballot in 1990.
Both propositions were defeated, then we tried it one more time and this time was a winner.
BRODIE: So you reference, you know, some of the press that Arizona's gotten over the years, and obviously, you know, the NFL took the Super Bowl away from the Phoenix area during that time. I wonder if you see any comparisons to another major time when Arizona was getting bad press. Do you see parallels or are those two different things to you?
STEWART: Very much so. OK. I was involved and have been involved in the immigration fight since 2010 and beyond. I mean, because I saw it as a justice fight. And so I had no challenges moving into and fighting alongside my Brown brothers and sisters and others who supported common sense immigration reform, and we were so close.
I served for three or four years as the chair of the National Immigration Forum out of Washington, D.C., and we were right there with the gang of eight senators, four senators, Republicans, four Democrats, two, both of our Senators Flake and McCain, and yet pockets of power in the United States Congress torpedoed comprehensive immigration reform and that's why, that's why we're having the problem we're having now.
BRODIE: So I'm curious, when you look around right now, both in Arizona and maybe to an extent around the country, where do you think we are in terms of race relations compared to where we were when you started this job?
STEWART: I am very concerned that because of what's coming from the White House and the complicity of the controlling party in the Congress, they are allowing a reversal of civil rights. I mean, getting rid of diversity, equity and inclusion, renaming military bases after Confederate leaders, outlawing teaching history of people of color in our schools, that is very dangerous. I tell people we can't complain and comply. We must engage in courageous resistance. Whatever that means, we must not allow this to happen.
And if that means going back to marching in the streets that people have been doing, even non-violent civil disobedience, we need to get the message out that America will not go in reverse when it comes to race relations.
BRODIE: So I guess this kind of brings us back to where we started in terms of now that you're going to be retiring. It doesn't sound though that you're looking to necessarily retire from this fight, from this issue.
STEWART: No, I'm retiring from the day to day responsibilities of being a senior pastor of First Baptist Church. I may have more time to be out there fighting for liberty and justice for all.
