150 years after the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) had broken from their northern Baptist brethren over the issue of slavery (1845), in 1995 the SBC apologized to African Americans for its racism and in particular its stance on slavery. The apology and a series of accompanying resolutions did not mention Richard or James C. Furman by name, nor the university, but the SBC did address directly “the role that slavery played in the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention” and those Baptist “forbears” who “defended the right to own slaves, and either participated in, supported, or acquiesced in the particularly inhumane nature of American slavery.”

The resolution cited the racism leading to the “discrimination, oppression, injustice, and violence, both in the Civil War and throughout the history of our nation.” It “unwaveringly denounce[d] racism, in all its forms, as deplorable sin” and “apologize[d] to all African-Americans for condoning and/or perpetuating individual and systemic racism in our lifetime; and we genuinely repent of racism of which we have been guilty.” The SBC asked “forgiveness from our African- American brothers and sisters, acknowledging that our own healing is at stake” and committed the denomination to “eradicate racism in all its forms from Southern Baptist life and ministry.