Church People in the Struggle: The National Council of Churches and the Black Freedom Movement, 1950-1970

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. Focusing on the National Council of Churches, the principal ecumenical organization of the national Protestant religious establishment, the author draws on hitherto little-used or unknown archival resources and extensive interviews with participants. 21 halftones.