A White Preacher’s Message on Race and Reconciliation: Based on His Experiences Beginning with the Montgomery Bus Boycott Robert S. Gratez

978-1-58838-190-3 1-58838-190-0 $26.95 hardcover 5½ x 8½ 256 pages NewSouth Books

In 1955, when the Montgomery Bus Boycott began, author Bob Graetz was the young white pastor of a black Lutheran Church in Montgomery. His church and his home were in the black community and he and his wife were among the few whites who supported the boycott. Their church and home were both bombed; their lives were threatened often. But Graetz never wavered, and his Montgomery experiences, recounted in rich detail here, shaped a long ministerial career that always emphasized equality and justice issues no matter where his call took him. In addition to Graetz’s boycott memoirs, this book includes provocative chapters on white privilege, black forgiveness, and the present-day challenges for human and civil rights. about the author Robert Graetz is pastor of St. John Lutheran Church near Logan, Ohio. He also leads study tours of Deep South civil rights sites for U.S. students and U.S. and international visitors.