Church people in the struggle

Description:

In the 1960s, the mainstream Protestant churches responded to an urgent need by becoming deeply involved with the national black community in its struggle for racial justice. The National Council of Churches (NCC), as the principal ecumenical organization of the national Protestant religious establishment, initiated an active new role by establishing a Commission on Religion and Race in 1963. Focusing primarily on the efforts of the NCC, this is the first study by an historian to examine the relationship of the predominantly white, mainstream Protestant Churches to the Civil Rights movement. Drawing on hitherto little-used and unknown archival resources and extensive interviews with participants, Findlay documents the churches' committed involvement in the March on Washington in 1963, the massive lobbying effort to secure passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, their powerful support of the struggle to end legal segregation in Mississippi, and their efforts to respond to the Black Manifesto and the rise of black militancy before and during 1969. Findlay chronicles initial successes, then growing frustration as the events of the 1960s unfolded and the national liberal coalition, of which the churches were a part, disintegrated. While never losing sight of the central, indispensable role of the African-American community, Findlay's study for the first time makes clear the highly significant contribution made by liberal religious groups in the turbulent, exciting, moving, and historic decade of the 1960s.

subjects: African Americans,  Christianity,  Civil rights,  Civil rights movements,  History,  National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States,  Race relations,  Religious aspects of Civil rights,  Religious aspects of Race relations,  Civil Rights Movement,  National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America,  University of South Alabama,  11.55 Protestantism,  Protestantse kerken,  Bürgerrechtsbewegung,  Schwarze,  Negers,  African americans, civil rights,  African americans, mississippi,  Civil rights movements, united states,  Mississippi, social conditions,  United states, race relations,  Religion,  Theology,  Noirs américains,  Droits,  Mouvements des droits de l'homme,  Histoire,  Relations raciales,  Droits de l'homme,  Aspect religieux,  Christianisme,  General,  Christian Life,  Social Issues,  Religious aspects

Places: Mississippi,  United States

Times: 20th century