Author Oren Renick Returns for Smoke Over Mississippi Events

Author Oren Renick is pictured with his wife, Judy, after discussing his book in June with visitors at the Mississippi Department of Archives & History in June. Both Mississippi natives are 1966 Mississippi College graduates.

Oren Renick returns to Jackson for two summer events to promote his new book “Smoke Over Mississippi” that portrays one of the unsung heroes of the South’s Civil Rights Movement.

A Mississippi College graduate and Texas State University professor, Renick will appear at the Lemuria store off I-55 for a book signing event on July 19. The program begins that Tuesday at 5 p.m.

His book tells the story of a white Baptist leader, William Penn Davis, who organized a group of pastors and other religious leaders after the burnings of black churches in his native Mississippi.

Former Gov. William Winter applauds the book by Renick about his cherished friend. It is a tribute to a courageous man who inspired spiritual leaders in the state to “eliminate racial injustice,” Winter said.

A Mississippi College graduate, Dr. Davis formed the interracial Committee of Concern in 1964 in Jackson to help rebuild 42 black churches reduced to ashes.

A former president of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board in 1954, Davis served as executive director of the Mississippi Religious Leadership Conference from 1973 through 1985. The award-winning humanitarian died in Jackson in 1989.

A professor in the School of Health Administration at Texas State, Renick and his wife, Judy, who is also a 1966 Mississippi College graduate, reside in San Marcos, Texas.

Fans of Renick’s book published by Insight Press of Covington, Louisiana will get another opportunity to visit with the author.

Renick will be among more than 100 writers invited to the Mississippi Book Festival at the state Capitol in Jackson on Saturday August 20.

This fall, his book will be used by students at Mississippi College’s Christian Studies classes on the Clinton campus.

Renick penned his master’s thesis at MC on the Civil Rights work of Dr. Davis. The Baptist leader’s personal diary served as the basis for much of “Smoke Over Mississippi.”