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Church People in the Struggle: The National Council of Churches and the Black Freedom Movement, 1950-1970 (Religion in America)
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$ 58.00
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| Item Number |
160241 |
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Item Description...
This comprehensive study represents the first effort by an historian to examine the relationship of the mainstream Protestant Churches to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. The focus is on the National Council of Churches, the principal ecumenical organization of the national Protestant religious establishment. Drawing on hitherto little-used and unknown archival resources and extensive interviews with participants, Findlay reveals the widespread participation of the predominantly white churches in the efforts moving toward black freedom that continued throughout the sixties. He documents the churches' active involvement in the March on Washington in 1963 and 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 national liberal coalition, of which the churches were a part, disintegrated as the events of the 1960s unfolded. For the first time, Findlay's study makes clear the highly significant role played by liberal religious groups in the turbulent, exciting, moving, and historic events of the 1960s. |
Item Specifications...
Pages 280
Dimensions: Length: 9.19" Width: 6.16" Height: 0.77"
Weight: 0.89 lbs.
Binding Softcover
Release Date Nov 1, 1997
Publisher Oxford University Press
ISBN 019511812X
EAN 9780195118124
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Availability 100 units.
Availability accurate as of May 26, 2012 08:48.
Usually ships within one to two business days from La Vergne, TN.
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 | Importance of church activity to pass civil rights legislation Jul 19, 2007 |
This was required reading for a graduate course in American history.
While the United States Congress was debating the Civil Rights Act of 1964, many organizations were pressuring the congressmen to support the Act. In the end, Hubert Humphrey believed that the church organizations had been "the most important force at work" 1James F. Findlay surveys the efforts of religious organizations in his article "Religion and Politics in the Sixties: The Churches and the Civil Rights Act of 1964" and tries to show whether Humphrey was correct.
The most important organization during the fight to pass the bill was the National Council of Churches. Under its organizational umbrella were many religious based organizations including the Federal Council of Churches which was "the principal Protestant ecumenical body of the early twentieth century and a major advocate of the Social Gospel. The members of the NCC saw the struggle for economic and political justice as their moral duty before God. They saw Jesus Christ as the example of someone who always advocated for the disposed. In the early 1960s they embraced the fight for civil rights. The plight of African Americans in the south fit in with their larger purpose of justice for all. The Protestant Social Gospel movement was alive within segments of the Catholic Church also, particularly in Latin America. Catholics and Jewish groups joined the NCC in their fight for the Civil Rights act. On moral grounds they could not refuse to help. The civil rights movement was largely led by ministers and they invoked the biblical righteousness of their cause. Segregation and violence were obviously against the gospel and many religious people began to see it. Findlay writes about the different methods that they used to persuade congress. The debate lasted ten months but everyday there were large church groups in the gallery and often there were small to large demonstrations in front of congress or in the Washington Mall. There were church services everyday dedicated to the passage of the Act in Washington D. C. and many other places in the United States. Thousands of people wrote letters to their congressmen. Some of the letters are quoted in the article and Findlay remarks that they are the letters of people not used to writing to government representatives. According to Findlay, The organizers knew where all the congressmen stood so they concentrated their efforts in the Midwest and Border States where they could turn some votes. Ministers preached sermons on the immorality of segregation and the equality of men before God. They urged parishioners to write in support of the Civil Rights Bill. There were also roving four-person teams that included a minister, an African American civil rights worker, a legislative expert and a contact person from the NCC. These teams would educate parishioners on the importance of passing the Bill.
Findlay writes that there was a profound belief in the hearts of many religious activists that segregation was immoral and that it had to change for the country to grow. He believes that the religious activism for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a precursor for the modem conservative religious activism that continually advocates for their ideas of morality to become the law. He believes that many people who were silent during the early sixties felt there was no one speaking for them and they became the group that later was tapped by Jerry Fallwel and Pat Robertson to constitute the Moral Majority. Findlay concludes that the Church organizations helped a great deal but that it was a combination o fthe labor, civil rights and religious organizations that successfully helped in the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Recommended reading for anyone interested in American history, civil rights history.
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