In the summer of 1964, the turmoil of the civil rights movement
reached its peak in Mississippi, with activists across the
political spectrum claiming that God was on their side in the
struggle over racial justice. This was the summer when violence
against blacks increased at an alarming rate and when the murder of
three civil rights workers in Mississippi resulted in national
media attention. Charles Marsh takes us back to this place and
time, when the lives of activists on all sides of the civil rights
issue converged and their images of God clashed. He weaves their
voices into a gripping narrative: a Ku Klux Klansman, for example,
borrows fiery language from the Bible to link attacks on blacks to
his "priestly calling"; a middle-aged woman describes how the
Gospel inspired her to rally other African Americans to fight
peacefully for their dignity; a SNCC worker tells of harrowing
encounters with angry white mobs and his pilgrimage toward a new
racial spirituality called Black Power. Through these emotionally
charged stories, Marsh invites us to consider the civil rights
movement anew, in terms of religion as a powerful yet protean force
driving social action.
The book's central figures are Fannie Lou Hamer, who "worked for
Jesus" in civil rights activism; Sam Bowers, the Imperial Wizard of
the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi; William
Douglas Hudgins, an influential white Baptist pastor and unofficial
theologian of the "closed society"; Ed King, a white Methodist
minister and Mississippi native who campaigned to integrate
Protestant congregations; and Cleveland Sellers, a SNCC staff
member turned black militant.
Marsh focuses on the events and religious convictions that led
each person into the political upheaval of 1964. He presents an
unforgettable American social landscape, one that is by turns
shameful and inspiring. In conclusion, Marsh suggests that it may
be possible to sift among these narratives and lay the groundwork
for a new thinking about racial reconciliation and the beloved
community. He maintains that the person who embraces faith's
life-affirming energies will leave behind a most powerful legacy of
social activism and compassion.
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