Alton’s Story: Sharing the love of God with all people

Alton’s grandmother was a strong Christian, but growing up in Tennessee in the 1960s their family endured a daily onslaught of racism. When Alton was 12, the KKK burned a cross in their yard. That day he vowed never to believe in “a white man’s god.” 

From that point on he lived with “vengeance in his heart,” until one day he reluctantly found himself in a church. As he watched from the back of the chapel, the guest speaker was introduced: A former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. This chance encounter would change the trajectory of Alton’s life.

Below is a transcript of the video edited for readability.

Alton: I grew up in Henning, Tennessee with my grandmother. We didn’t have running water, we didn’t have heat in the house. We were just poor.

We used to go into town, we had little white boys calling my grandmother “gal,” and calling my granddaddy “boy,” using racial slurs, and that really irked me.

My grandma taught us that Jesus loved everybody. At that time, I took my grandmother at her word.

But when I was twelve, the Ku Klux Klan burned a cross in my grandmother’s yard.

When I saw that cross burning in my yard, and heard all the racial slurs they was using, I was convinced that day it’s a white man’s God.

I knew in my grandmother’s house that I had to go to church. But I told my grandma, I’m not gonna believe in a white man’s God. I made a covenant with myself: I’m not gonna let whitey get the best of me. When I get a chance, I’m gonna hurt whitey.

I had vengeance in my heart. Life went on.

It was March 1982. One day I got into a situation. I need to figure out how to get $5,000.

I met this white guy. He said, “Man, I loan you $5,000.” Every week, I paid him back $100. And one day he said, “If you do this one thing for me, I will wipe your debt clean.”

“I want you to come to church with me on Sunday.”

I said, “No, man, I keep on paying my debt.” Because I ain’t going to your white church with all them old white people over there. I ain’t going.

He said, “No, think about it.”

I talked to some of my buddies. They said, “Man, go.” I said, “All right, man, y’all right.”

I called him up and said, “Hey, man, I’ll be in church Sunday, but I’m gonna tell you this, if one of them call me brother, I’m gone.”

I went. I’m sitting in church, and then they said, “Today we got a special guest. The former Grand Wizard of the KKK.”

I was sitting in the back of the church with my fists balled. I said, “I should go up there and smack this cracker around,” but something wouldn’t let me do it.

He talked about how he hated Black people, how they talked about hatred in church. But he said one night he had a dream, and God told him, “I love everybody. I love the Black people.”

He went to a church to listen to a Black man preach. He walked down to the altar and gave his life to Jesus. He said for the first time in his life, he allowed a Black man to hug him. He said, “That day, God changed my life.”

Now all of a sudden, I got a tear in my right eye. I got a tear in my left eye. I’m crying. He made an altar call. I said, “Okay, God, if you’re real, you change me.”

I went to the altar. I got down on my knees. I asked Jesus to come into my heart. I felt the weight, the hatred, the bitterness, the pain, the anger, everything come off me.

The guest speaker, we stayed in contact many, many years. He would always ask me to come and do a revival with him, and he was a good brother.

In 2003, I was asked to go to a prison and speak. They told me one of the guys is the head guy of the Aryan Nation. I said, “Okay, it’s no problem.”

Thursday, Friday and part of Saturday, he just stared me down. I said, I’m going to allow the love of God in me to touch his heart.

So, it was my turn to speak. I went off script and gave my testimony. He had tears in his eyes. Him and I talked, and he said, “You know what? The next session, I’m gonna give my life to Jesus.”

The preacher made an altar call, and the guy got down on his knees, like I did. So I go up there and pray with him. He gave his life to Jesus. And the brother writes me, for the last 17 years, he’s been writing me.

Today, when I share the gospel, when I preach the gospel, the gospel is for everybody. It’s been almost 13 years now as Corps Sergeant Major with The Salvation Army, and now also, I am the Chaplain of the Denver metro area, that I’m responsible for seven shelters and going and sharing the love of God with people. I have to give all the credit and honor and glory to Jesus. It was because of the gospel of Jesus Christ that changed my life.

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