After writing an article in Look magazine, he was dismissed from his position as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Columbus, Georgia, due to his views on race and racial segregation.
[2] As a child, he internalized this adult fear, as many other children did, and would throw rocks at the African American boys who ventured into the neighborhood.
[2] However, he also looked up to an African American man named Bob Perdue who worked on the neighbor's yard, and was very attached to his cook-nurse, whom he had the duty of walking home from the age of 12.
Whenever a cook quit, it was his job to discover prospects for a replacement, leading him to go from door to door in the African American ghetto of East Thomas, judging the women and their houses to decide if they were appropriate to invite to speak to his mother about the job, giving him a larger experience with African Americans than most of the boys he knew.
[2] Furthermore, while he attended the school, he felt that "We were to preach on temperance but not prohibition, justice but not politics, greed but not economics, prejudice but not segregation, and so on.
[2] While he had never taken any stance against segregation, he was beginning to feel he could no longer be a moderate, and began to realize "that racism was another one of those uniforms of snobbery that [he] detested.
While working at the church, McNeill began to study the issue of segregation, beginning with Gunnar Myrdal's An American Dilemma, and other books.
[2] He also went back to visit his old neighborhood, and spoke with an African American man, whose house had been bombed by the Ku Klux Klan, but who had rebuilt and steadfastly remained.
These influences led him to feel ashamed of the South, and though he was not yet in favor of integration because of a fear of "the social convulsion" he knew would come, he could no longer ignore the issue.
While he was still not an advocate of integration, he did preach on Race Relations Sunday a sermon entitled "The Dark Blot on Democracy," which, for its time, was "provocative," according to McNeill's autobiography.
The committee was not intended to speak on race; however, he chose to do so, and in his report to the synod claimed that "We are faced with two inevitables, the Federal Constitution and the Christian conscience.
"[2] The report did not encourage integration; it simply asked that the church "Work toward all possible accomplishment under the separate-but equal doctrine now in effect."
In 1954, the southern branch of the Presbyterian Church, was considering rejoining the northern, and ending the split existing since the Civil War.
All the pastors condemned the murder; but McNeill stated that "I am primarily concerned with the thousands of us who created the spiritual climate that made this act possible and with those who approve it," which displeased some of the congregation.
[2] In April 1957, Chester Morrison, an editor of Look magazine, asked McNeill to author an article denouncing the Ku Klux Klan.
After discussing the issue with his wife, McNeill agreed to write an article, which he and Morrison decided would be on a southern minister's approach to the overall problem of segregation, instead of being directly against the Klan.
To prevent controversy, McNeill published in the Sunday bulletin a statement asking the congregation to "Reserve your judgment until the article appears.
"[2] Though the article itself never appeared in Look magazine, the word of it angered the antagonists, and convinced the commission that McNeill would no longer be able to be pastor of the church.
Time magazine would print this excerpt: "We in the South can no longer speak in terms of democracy or justice without making a parenthetical exception for an entire people.
The article suggested that by doing so, many in the South would be "disgust[ed]" and that the injustice of actions of the commission would "win his views more sympathetic attention.
They described how the congregation had protested the chairman's decision, telling him that "You have been listening to the wrong people," and noting that "Some women in the choir burst into tears.
[4] Jet magazine published a paragraph on the incident in its August 27, 1959 issue, stating that McNeill "was dismissed as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Columbus because of his views on racial integration.
"[6] On July 12, The Miami News published a large article chronicling the story, and saying that "Nowhere has the South's tragic cleavage on the racial question produced a more shattering effect.
[2] Despite his dismissal, some of the women of the former church of his took turns sitting at a table in front of his hospital door, preventing any one from bothering him, so that he could successfully recover from his stressful ordeal.
'"[8] After he had recovered from his heart attack, McNeill decided to take up a position at Bream Memorial Presbyterian Church, located in Charleston, West Virginia.
[2] He would be quoted by Jet magazine, stating that "Whites have been 'looting' Negroes for three centuries, so they set the stage for the explosion which has come," in response to the massive riots of 1967.