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.
Reviews
From the cloth edition; `Truly a pathbreaking manuscript, the work of painstaking and meticulous research ... a tour de force in academic detective work.'Leonard Sweet, President, United Theological Seminary
'a major contribution ... a fascinating and at times painful story which provides an indispensable context for understanding the place of the American church today in racial issues ... Professional historians will find much of use in the text and notes, but Findlay's thorough documentation in no way impedes the general reader's progress ... for those interested in black theology, Findlay's historical account is indispensable. Church People in the Struggle will engage anyone concerned with American church history or the more general question of how the church is to be related to the world.' Reviews in Religion and Theology, August 1994
an academic historian's objective and meticulously assembled account of the NCC's role in the struggle for racial justice throughout the 50s and 60s...this is the definitive account of the evolving relationship of the predominantly white, mainstream Protestant Churches to the Civil Rights movement. * Theological Book Review Vol 7 no 2 *



Book Information
ISBN 9780195118124
Author James F. Findlay
Format Paperback
Page Count 280
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 404g
Dimensions(mm) 233mm * 156mm * 20mm