In 1952, Paulk was named pastor of Atlanta's Hemphill Avenue Church of God (now Mount Paran Church of God) just as the civil rights movement was getting underway. He was one of the few white pastors who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. Not long after taking over at Hemphill, Paulk became a member of "Concerned Clergy," an interracial group of Atlanta pastors who opposed racial segregation. The group was led by King's father, Martin Luther King Sr., and met in the basement of the elder King's church, Ebenezer Baptist Church. During this time, Paulk served on a committee that observed Georgia's then-segregated schools, and determined that "separate but equal" was a fiction.