Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Go and Be Reconciled: Alabama Methodists Confront Racial Injustice, 1954-1974
    Go and Be Reconciled: Alabama Methodists Confront Racial Injustice, 1954-1974
    Go and Be Reconciled: Alabama Methodists Confront Racial Injustice, 1954-1974
    Ebook216 pages2 hours

    Go and Be Reconciled: Alabama Methodists Confront Racial Injustice, 1954-1974

    By William Nicholas and G. Ward Hubbs

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    During the climactic years of the civil rights movement in the Deep South, a closely related struggle was going on within the United Methodist Church. That denomination, second only in membership in the region to the Southern Baptists, was slowly moving toward integration under mandate from its national governing body, the Methodist General conference. But in Alabama, external institutional pressures and even internal constituencies were not strong enough to break down the segregated church structure: doing that would require a significant shift in the leadership of the church.

    The story is one in which an institution based on the moral teachings of Christianity confronted the immorality of racism and legal segregation within its own ranks while it continued to operate within a racially divided larger society. Against the backdrop of the tumultuous events of the civil rights struggle (the 1954 Supreme Court school desegregation decision, the Freedom Rides in 1961, the King demonstration in Birmingham in 1963, and the Sixteenth Street Baptist church bombing), the North Alabama Conference and its counterpart in South Alabama carried on a spirited and often bitter debate over the existence of a completely separate conference for their black membership.

    This book tells the inside story of the struggle within the North Alabama Conference for the first time by utilizing the publications and official archives of the church. But its most important sources are interviews with a wide spectrum of Methodists, including those who served in roles of leadership and those who were simply faithful members of their respective churches. Their accounts are compelling and go far beyond the sometimes vague and uninformative official conference documents. Many of the persons interviewed are no longer living, but in transferring their spoken words onto the printed page, there is a sense that their long-suppressed stories are being told for the first time. They described in detail how a hierarchical institution moved from a position of absolute commitment to segregation to one in which the uniting of the races under one organizational structure was achieved. In the end, the integration of the church was finally realized as a result of the daring leadership of a single bishop who challenged the prevailing white segregationist laity, Kenneth Goodson. But along the way there were many other persons who risked their careers and even their personal safety on behalf of racial justice. This is their story as well.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNewSouth Books
    Release dateJun 1, 2018
    ISBN9781603064156
    Go and Be Reconciled: Alabama Methodists Confront Racial Injustice, 1954-1974
    Author

    William Nicholas

    WILLIAM NICHOLAS is Professor Emeritus at Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, Alabama, where he was James R. Wood Professor and taught recent American history and Latin American history for forty years. In 2005-2006, the College presented him with the outstanding Educator of the Year Award and he received the ODK Distinguished Professor Teaching Award in 2006-2007. His research interests have centered on twentieth century civil liberties and he has published articles on Southern academic freedom in during World War I and student participation in the Civil Rights movement during the 1960s in Birmingham. His research in recent years has employed extensive oral history interviews to amplify the archival records of the United Methodist Church in North Alabama during the Civil Rights era. He is currently retired in his native state of Texas and participates in local civic activities and arts organizations in Georgetown, Texas. He also pursues his lifelong study of the Spanish language and his devotion to the piano and opera performance.

    Related authors

    Related to Go and Be Reconciled

    Related ebooks

    Christianity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Convert Nation

      Aug 12, 2017

      Convert Nation
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Sanctuary Of Social And Spiritual Justice: Commentary On Ebenezer Church

      Dec 11, 2020

      Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King preached, has come under threat during the Georgia Senate runoff.

      4 min read

    • Article

      ‘Confess These Sins’: White Evangelical Churches Reflect On Racism

      Jul 13, 2020

      Some white Evangelical leaders are acknowledging racism in their past. The challenge, Black leaders say, is in sustained action toward change.

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Commons

      Mar 15, 2021

      The Commons
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Draft Roe Ruling Is A Reminder That Religion's Role Is Older Than The Republic

      May 14, 2022

      The question arises: Since when did so much of our politics have to do with religion? And the answer is, since the beginning — and even before.

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Conversation

      May 17, 2018

      The Conversation
      6 min read

    • Article

      Erasing The Color Line In Churches

      Jul 2, 2020

      Just as dialogues on race have opened up within churches, so can they start between churches. Sacred texts are a shared resource for healing of a racial divide.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Trump’s Headache From The Right

      Oct 23, 2020

      Trump’s Headache From The Right
      9 min read

    • Article

      Rehearsal for Rebellion

      Apr 26, 2022

      Rehearsal for Rebellion
      10 min read

    • Article

      A Daughter’s Story: White Supremacy and the Poor People’s Campaign

      May 18, 2022

      UCS is honored to be a mobilizing partner for the Poor People’s Campaign, a nonviolent call to moral revival. If you can join us in Washington, DC on June 18th in solidarity with their march and assembly, I hope you will. I’ve been fortunate to visit

      4 min read

    • Article

      How the Mormons Conquered America: The success of the Mormon religion is a study in social adaptation.

      Jun 12, 2014

      At the end of the smash Broadway musical, The Book of Mormon, the protagonist, Elder Price, a zealous young Mormon missionary in Uganda, triumphantly sings, “We are still Latter day Saints, all of us / Even if we change some things, or we break the r

      11 min read

    • Article

      Cal Thomas: The ‘Outpouring’

      Mar 28, 2023

      Wilmore, KY – The secular and cynical find it difficult to believe not only that “God governs in the affairs of men,” as Benjamin Franklin said, but that He would visit a small town where there are few traffic lights and a decent restaurant is severa

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Go and Be Reconciled

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Go and Be Reconciled - William Nicholas

      bbook_preview_excerpt.html[ے6>Z4yC*I*<0/)='Y}L8B"D" :S۝?] vcj[=r}K~eK^=ոUݺԣ5!V~_kර1V2G`[3ڦv`b\;JՇM𣍣Ǫ\oFxV߹XZ@#Xht7.B nm<ʅ*m[Mމ|8{} {5_ۈ~㧾`1KQLT__O~Ys8M?oڦZwVnK(b,֭X;^l쨢gA8TmjUiq {z.͑U~kTwATjb:^ z*}ȵӲ`tJI YUUݙ~kKܹGA~k]=Zs@`)BQNlN`' X-G7N/豞::;aGRܮs#rx|u\'^ [D =,j;${<$~F(85~Iiec~pZt> 0հ  W-Ԇ_@5HkFtuhDtU [[UlؙAs +Avrr[766n k[$H.q<=*#W CDyza. U{r" Rؙ:NVhdڲ6lskǑ81m !C -} w׌]vx9:=iT9/v=l76=mu9(D`|s>媲{"<'p+,^ BVfΰM5 n}\rb~<zˏNH>Ѕ5ѪilqD n 0ukf%e'Z}ZE3~ [q@<,:ȍGJlM'\ !v4GpױX/rfuL t:&#w-,8=dr3*WAn6@3T,$nE,z&!e{&4IÄQ?@r %TDjL[M{k3%_ZmÍU!rƮ8ߵ@ab4..Nﰯ (g-W ZǺ_O0AP.Rgz i&8\*#DAYSҌғcx;ИQm܍ 8 +$D{c+jӧuն9KPI8={pv&;2KFPf( ` |dw矗`{Y,=h@ߙa!= hF+eqr5o0hR4 ߷J<3Q`p lǹ>9l@n:eq7kNhm0 %JT[~L@|Ga6Y72m^!IB!Oh;K5eωAk>QC4H4KW-N!P$+ R@@d*غ5L%BNgih0U:0@'^{!H:> 8l$G .ѧ0A{|HôT` hC]YТ0.Wn'](#!=W)ZFvJ.q1 P:TqᵚɉީGئRY$qɨ S*1jEEJTKJD]PÓ;x)sUP^hADLRr7";DݞVقh$6"R *qI!7hM< cvHzy*L~WjOLRp`.ᥳ:B6ET "QBg9'u`̓n*#f| T?cΜi:S`2Xr,kZ>ژ4$ro38Dn$ͤв %6A;VHTӈ__'9f]V*=m,#íW[$%+րGű+%Z-mڣX  9?DE6ed(Q7IZ&,B_G[cr#|T{FէsHZ44x8[o@1)v 8MR~EXOBhjK;FpY*cHP)̨`O6~SY+ *fkH Ԃ0eD q!"IJdW뮸D^2ע e5&ބ 'Du{]K3Zܵ,,}JE% sPh>%K7!i,$pG#Ym'-jHH: Yv*Q Ii[͢;>Cå$yOUhe FZtr14,(/f֡P$f}$ W" #)(d)i%r߳r]&E&0T-[DABk~19bG%u&^0ƥ1kqbᕶik:WxcʜHBdŁ@ 27AgZ /lRJ O u R7 U?@A[)pbwHϝkث!k[~F~Y~WEk3iI~^OwgDzR=!]hF ܷ(VH也h\ZVobT&)Si$PfN]-6! s=?uVt nHj7[O5y΅e"*f[Hk2@'{WR?kUWBj?l)7r\cE2V#tS꫖&P/9َ!}s݂ o ìʾOEyOB4Qg>W9##.CL`qZ8 pL81] 4m^[/QcBK3R;Xc?Nn4潔JRG#HBږdEµH2.$c.n 9SpϹ萛\J9u']FƂ7J.ԴSPk`BG X"ɝs nҰB,?;A8!uAesm F``vpj2_49'bd'IYvۤlǶ8&u}IH դty3i9*J5Y^\4w- ddB@0ǁj9oC}zN`"p]/"{ծ#(@E5:$!~W-csdKfABr3!o&ϭ{N ]? J'D?G;-P@c:?E:[bYڶ߱ V,U'B%*U?ٲ%1-ϤeOUbe? Hs(aAjZly6/\2WCv(| VtikV+cc~qq kEYj%3|5g ȄS&E~ P^a7KSM[=4IG+ gmd oWE\O" *d'tLd2]&3uW[ w{ mK݇^_UzA DUԘǸsƩ&idt@UP(5idj<BBxͽ rTPIOJ !Iɺ 5t9{#O$"i&^9V*hyuYȡ H6f.1%z%}E_#C.<90>):Ib iWmJ$aL6l:1RIS҇6 {4=[Iy:ͺpjUν,ĐcT ]tYR'ɧoZͫ~H0@JV9G!xVsӥg.Y1 u.Ȏˡ*5_R '`qo <[:ns[~4scwp}1$\p|JpHML e0Zm0.з::TuI'>` ʏw;KuBwq[4 ,Het[)n%P<7 Dnltߡ'ѱLfiaJ$0E"%'=V4YgrRşXك*o&[%f\_֭nʨn훚cI@ {8 :'GKye<~<s01M4 Z;С2 ]2Odž.B G# q[:!HݙC2絅b֯uq?`9H2MQJDbAY]xVFuDB1D.(E^{N 3Н>t3N {i=jT$W80#8n@ݳFqi qiNr"ޞP͏^#vRu4x־͵^^`BN) 'Iml>6l!"{^򢛋G8'o[)a T_9kڇ)UeϻwIC8ktYG\e*<ˇ#F3#!]N " 5>[lթYifVfD J-|r&n+ O,rZ{W hII±EHԼegBTCbОz r^l"ΐLX0̔RVF@n,)gžgM񴭻b't(&J20J_HYP8?Ku`\֖
      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1