Race and Restoration : Churches of Christ and the Black Freedom Struggle

"From the late nineteenth century to the dawn of the civil rights era, the Churches of Christ sometimes operated outside of conventional racial customs.

Many congregations, even deep in the South, counted whites and blacks among their numbers.

As the civil rights movement began to challenge pervasive social views about race, Church of Christ leaders and congregants found themselves in the midst of turmoil.

In "Race and Restoration: Churches of Christ and the Black Freedom Struggle," Barclay Key focuses on how these churches managed race relations during the Jim Crow era and how they adapted to the dramatic changes of the 1960s.

Although all religious organizations grappled with changing attitudes toward race, Churches of Christ had singular struggles.

Fundamentally "restorationist," these exclusionary churches perceived themselves as the only authentic expression of Christianity, compelling them to embrace peoples of different races, ev