Louie De Votie Newton

Louie DeVotie Newton (27 April 1892 – 3 June 1986) was President of the Southern Baptist Convention (1947–1948) in the United States, Baptist preacher, and author, as well as vice president of the Baptist World Alliance.

Biography

Newton was born in Screven County, Georgia on April 27, 1892. He was raised on his parents' farm, and in July 1902 was baptized in a stream near Union Baptist Church. He graduated from Mercer University in 1913 and then taught history at the university before earning a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. He joined the U.S. Army in 1917, and taught soldiers at camps near Macon during the First World War. He received a certain amount of criticism for the positive statements about Russia he made on his return, with some accusing him of communist sympathies, others of naivety and still another of "intellectual inadequacy."

Newton was president of the Georgia Baptist Convention in 1950 and 1951. Later he was vice president of the Baptist World Alliance.

The rest of his correspondences, specifically those dealing with his presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention (and consequently much of his correspondences dealing with the Russia trip), as well as many of his recorded sermons are held at the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archive.