A White Preacher's Memoir: The Montgomery Bus Boycott - Softcover

Graetz, Robert S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1579660150 ISBN 13: 9781579660154

Publisher: River City Pub, 1999

Synopsis

Book by Graetz, Robert S.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

At a time when it is easy to feel jaded about politics, race relations and religion, Graetz offers a time capsule with a potent humbling effect. In 1955, he was assigned as pastor to Trinity Lutheran Church in the black community in Montgomery, Ala., a conspicuous position for a young white man and his family, especially since they came from the North. Writing with the unassuming style of a country preacher, Graetz's gentle voice proves riveting in this account of the civil rights movement, looking outward from the eye of the storm. The book opens with a potentially devastating bomb attack on Graetz's house in retaliation for his involvement in the Montgomery bus boycott, which he and his family luckily survived. He chronicles the "brutal and dehumanizing treatment" of blacks for decades, often at the hands of the police, and the violent resistance against the new black movement for dignity, which culminated in a landmark Supreme Court ruling, only to usher in the battle to enforce it. Graetz knew Martin Luther King Jr. socially, Ralph Abernathy politically and Rosa Parks spiritually, as a member of his congregation. Having been invited to join all-black civil rights and clerical associations, Graetz often uses the term "we" when writing of the black community's struggle for human rights, though as a friend reminded him in the 1950s, as a white man he could always walk away. Risking reprimand by the church, Graetz drew more blacks to the Lutheran fold until he was called to a new post in Columbus, Ohio, in the summer of 1958. Rich with family stories and racial insights, this brief book leaves a lasting impression. Photos. (July)

Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

Graetz, a white Lutheran pastor from Ohio, became the minister of an all-black congregation in Montgomery, AL, in 1955. In the years that followed, he was intimately involved in the famous bus boycott and other early Civil Rights protests. His vivid first-hand account includes glimpses of Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and other legendary figures, but the book's real appeal is in its accounts of the brave and unknown people of the community Graetz knew intimately and in the quiet heroism of Graetz himself. Amidst death threats and repeated bombings of their home, he and his family continually demonstrated a commitment to freedom and justice that grew directly out of their faith and trust in God. Anyone interested in the early days of the struggle for racial equality from the point of view of a dedicated Christian will find Graetz's book both moving and informative. Recommended for academic and public libraries.AC. Robert Nixon, MLS, Lafayette, IN
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: River City Pub
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1579660150
• ISBN 13: 9781579660154
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160