Reverend finds Great Falls accepting

EDITOR’S NOTE:Hometown Heroes is a monthly Tribune series dedicated to honoring those who have made a difference in the lives of others. Each person featured is responsible for nominating another person — not related to them — who has inspired them in some way.

Great Falls was never really on Phillip Caldwell’s radar as a place where he’d live and be called into ministry.

But after more than 40 years, the preacher emeritus at Mount Olive Christian Church — a church he started 30 years ago — has found Great Falls to be an open community where a black man can feel welcome in a very white crowd.

“The people were so ready to accept me,” the retired airman said. “I could not have been accepted better here than anywhere else.”

It was in his acceptance that Caldwell was able to rally for major changes in how minorities are viewed in Montana, develop a thriving church in Great Falls for the black community made up predominantly from those based at Malmstrom Air Force Base and become a respected high school sports official.

“It was easy for me to get along with people,” he said.

It’s for these efforts and more that John Borgreen, July’s Hometown Hero, nominated Caldwell for the honor.

Caldwell, 83, tries to downplay his role as a leader in the black community in Great Falls and around the state. But he’s proud of the fact he worked with other civil rights leaders to get Montana to make Martin Luther King Junior Day a recognized, paid, state holiday. Montana was one of the last states to recognize it, he said.

He worked with several state legislators and former Gov. Marc Racicot to make it happen. He also traveled around the state with the choir from his church to make the case.

“When I came here it was a natural thing to be involved in Martin Luther King activities,” Caldwell said. “There were a lot of people involved.”

Caldwell was no stranger to racism. He grew up in Louisiana when segregation was still a fact of life. When he first started in the Air Force he was assigned to a base in Panama City, Fla. Black people lived on one side of the base; white people on the other. He lived that way for the first six months before everyone was put into dormitories, but black airmen were required to live with other black airmen.

Though he found acceptance in Great Falls, officiating sporting events in some of Montana’s smaller towns was sometimes challenging and there were threats made, but he tried not to dwell on those moments too long.

“There were places where it wasn’t welcoming,” he said. “You could hear some things.”

But when you’re a referee, no matter what your ethnicity is, you’re never very popular.

“I spent 33 years as a football and basketball official — not a very good one,” he joked. “A lot of people changed my name from Phil Caldwell to Son-of-a.”

His son, Tony Caldwell, was a star football and basketball player for C.M. Russell High School, which also helped him earn respect and acceptance in Great Falls.

“If you’ve got this good football player, they don’t want you to leave,” he said.

Caldwell started Mount Olive Christian Fellowship 30 years ago after noticing that there were not a lot of young black airmen and women attending churches in Great Falls. Some found a home at Bethel AME or Alexander Temple, but Caldwell said he knew there were a number of young people who weren’t finding a home in the white churches.

It was in that church he raised up good leaders, such as Chris Benson, who helped create a choir that is asked to perform all over town. He created a church where civil rights were discussed and helped a bunch of military members know and understand God’s ministry.

Never formally educated in ministry, Caldwell said he’s been blessed to have received an education from the people he’s known.

“All that I have learned, I’ve learned from the people I’ve worked with,” he said. “It’s been a great ride. It’s been so wonderful. To think, that the Lord would reach down and pick up a little black boy from the backwoods of Napoleonville, Louisiana.”

THE TRAIL OF HEROES:

Schelli Bolta, Dr. Bryan Martin, Michelle Chenoweth, Trina Knoche, Joan Redeen, Marilyn Hall, Jerry Smith (via Mary Pay Smith), Kathy Van Tighem, John Borgreen, Phillip Caldwell.

Next month? Chris Benson