Guide to the Amal Halaby and Charles Marks Papers

Amal Halaby Marks

Amal Rizkallah Marks (née Halaby) was a Presbyterian elder, advocate, and organizer of the National Middle Eastern Presbyterian Caucus. Born in Kab Elias (Qab Ilyās), Lebanon on December 28, 1935, she graduated from Tripoli Girls' School in 1953, from Beirut College for Women in 1955, and from Maryville College in 1960. From 1960 to 1969, she served as executive secretary for Women's and Youth Work of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon (NESSL). She completed a master's degree in Christian education at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. In 1970, she immigrated to the United States and married her friend from seminary, Charles Marks. The couple moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s and had two children, Ameer and Reema. In 1989, Amal began work at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (PC(USA)) national agency offices, and in 1993, she began service as associate for Middle Eastern congregations in Evangelism and Church Development. She participated in the organization of the National Middle Eastern Presbyterian Caucus in 1996. She retired in 2007. She died on March 24, 2019.

Charles Marks

Charles Marks is an African American Presbyterian minister and theological educator. Born on March 20, 1943 in Savannah, Georgia, he attended the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA)'s Butler United Presbyterian Church, and he graduated from Knoxville College and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (PTS). While in seminary he served Bidwell Street Presbyterian Church (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) and was part of the city's civil rights movement, joining a joint PTS-Southern Christian Leadership Conference voter registration drive in Georgia. At PTS Charles also met his future spouse, Amal Rizkallah Halaby. The couple’s family would grow to include their two children, Ameer and Reema. Charles spent a year as an Urban Intern at Olivet Presbyterian Church (Chicago, Illinois) before returning to Bidwell Street in 1969. In 1973, he joined the staff of the Synod of Southern California, working in youth leadership development and supporting the Synod's Black churches. In 1982, he joined the staff of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.'s (UPCUSA) Program Agency, working in racial/ethnic leadership recruitment, and he continued on as national agency staff until 1995. From 1995 to 1999 he was pastor of Witherspoon Presbyterian Church (Indianapolis, Indiana). He was a professor and chaplain of San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS) from 1999 to 2010.

During a 2004 class trip to Lebanon, Charles and his SFTS student group visited Khiam (Khiyām) detention center, once a French, later an Israeli/South Lebanon Army prison in southern Lebanon, for educational purposes. The group met with the prison administration during a period where the prison was run by Hezbollah (Hizballah), which Charles has stated that he was unaware of at the time. After the group returned from the trip, a member of Valley Presbyterian Church in Phoenix, Arizona questioned seminary administration if PC(USA) funds were used for the trip, after an article was published (June 2, 2004) in the Lebanon "Daily Star" reporting on the student group's visit and misquoting Charles. The Jewish Community Relations Council in San Francisco accused Charles and his students of supporting terrorism on account of this inadvertent contact.