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The War Cry | JULY 2015
fore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit'
(Matthew 28:19). Before I opened
the letter, when I saw the back of the envelope with
that passage, with its challenge to go into all the
world, I know that was the confirmation I'd been
praying for!" Then, he had to tell his parents.
His dad's reply shocked him. "I already know," his
dad calmly said.
"I asked him how he knew, and I will always re-
member his answer: `The Lord has been speaking to
me--and I have been watching you. God's hand is on
you for this ministry.'"
He joined the
Heroes of the Faith
Session at the
Army's Eastern Territory training school as a cadet in
1962. A session mate, Cadet Eva Shue, would catch
Gaither's attention much later, when both were ap-
pointed as lieutenants to separate corps in Pittsburgh.
They began dating and
eventually fell in love.
"It was a time when it
should not have hap-
pened--a black man
interested in a white
woman during the civil
rights era," Commis-
sioner Gaither relates.
Just a few years ear-
lier, another mixed-race
cadet couple sought to
marry but were quickly
discouraged. They were
even dismissed from
the training school.
Indeed, interracial
marriage was illegal in
30 states until 1967,
when the U.S. Supreme
Court threw out such
state and local laws.
For the
Army's part, no such prohibition ex-
isted in its orders and regulations, so Israel and Eva
received approval to marry, making them the first
interracial officer couple in any of the four territories
in the United States.
Together, their service in various appointments in
the Eastern Territory was sterling. But it was not
without painful experiences. Some whites were less
accepting of their marriage than others.
"We experienced no overt racial attitudes within
the Army," Gaither says, "but we knew they existed.
We could feel it at times."
During the 1970s, Captain Israel Gaither was in
high demand for speaking on subjects that included
"Black Theological Tendencies," "Religion and
Blacks" and "The Gospel to the Ghetto."
He served as vice-chair of the 1977 (Eastern) Territorial
Israel L. Gaither
Barrier-Breaker
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