Koinonea Community

kslinkar@lionheart.berkeley.edu
Wed, 21 May 97 12:30:32 PST

"From: David Tillyer, CUNY (datcc@cunyvm.cuny.edu

On Tue, 6 May 1997 17:13:29 -0400 David E. Bell said:
Does anyone have any information about Koinenea Community. It
was a farm run by a family named Jordan (pronounced jerdan) in
Southwest Georgia that was used as a conference site and general R&R
retreat by SNCC in the early sixties. Is it still in existence?
David"

To David et al:

I wrote my father (The Rev. Mr. Thomas Raikes Slinkard) who had
been peripherally active in central Georgia during the period in
question, and this was his reply. If anyone needs to reach him
directly, his e-mail is: tslink@cyberback.com. Using the correct
spelling, I was able to locate an article relating to the "commune" on
the net at: http://www.macontel.com/living/koinb30.htm. Apparently
it is still in existence though its original form and purpose seem to
have changed somewhat.

Karl Slinkard
kslinkar@library.berkeley.edu

"It certainly does. I heard Jordan speak at Mercer once and met
him after. The Koinenea (I think he has misspelled it ) was a few
miles south of Americus. It was interracial and that is what did it
in. Companies that dealt with them had a boycott put on them. So it
finally had to shut down. Jordan was a Baptist preacher (not in very
good standing in the denomination); he wrote "The Cotton Patch
Gospels:" a rewriting of the Gospels for the South of the '40's &
'50's. I have a book by Dallas Lee, "The Cotton Patch Evidence: The
Story of Clarence Jordan and the Koinonia [that's the correct
spelling] farm Experience." NYC: Harper & Row,1971.
The farm was also shamelessly "red-baited" The farm was
established in 1942; it died a lingering death, but I believe it was
all over by 1968.

I hope this helps. Dad
----------
> From: kslinkar@lionheart.berkeley.edu > To:
tslink@cyberback.com
> Subject: Koinenea Community
> Date: Wednesday, May 14, 1997 8:54 PM >
> Dad
>
> Does this mean anything to you? >
> Karl

The first book is located in UC Berkeley library: Snider, P. Joel,
1952 - The "Cotton patch" gospel: the proclamation of Clarence
Jordan, Lanham, MD : University Press of America, c1985.
BX6495.J65S65 1985

I could find no trace of the second book by Dallas Lee, however.

Karl Slinkard
kslinkard@library.berkeley.edu