50 Years: Racial Reconciliation and the Church

The Christian Chronicle’s series “50 Years: Racial Reconciliation and the Church” highlights significant events of 1967 and 1968.

Find links to all the stories below.

Part 1

National Guardsman Gary Ciko checks buildings for snipers during the 1967 Detroit riot

• ‘No more us and them’: At 50th anniversary of Detroit race riot, black and white churches model unity.

• The riot, in retrospect: Hubert G. Locke was a Church of Christ minister and Detroit Police Department employee in 1967.

Part 2

Marshall Keeble and Martin Luther King Jr.

• Two legacies, 50 years later: Marshall Keeble and Martin Luther King Jr. fought for ‘different things in different ages.’

• Marshall Keeble’s ‘boy preachers’ still baptizing and saving souls: Famous traveling evangelist mentored many of the most influential African-American ministers in Churches of Christ.

• ‘Sister Keeble’ stayed strong in mind, faith: The widow of famous traveling evangelist Marshall Keeble lived to be 108.

• Marshall Keeble fought racism by melting hearts: ‘He had intellect, insight and a humble spirit that he used to stand at the front door of the angry lion of racism.’

• A bedside prayer with Brother Keeble: Meeting him was the opportunity of a lifetime.

Part 3

The Atlanta meeting made the front page of the July 5, 1968, Christian Chronicle.

• Fifty years after historic meeting, race still divides Churches of Christ: ‘We still have two brotherhoods,’ says longtime minister who helped organize 1968 national conference.

• My life in the pews, black and white: Covering the 50th anniversary of the Atlanta meeting on race relations in Churches of Christ has journalist thinking about his own history. 

• From the 1968 archive: Atlanta conference studies race.

Filed under: National 1967 1968 Atlanta Detroit Race Racial reconciliation and the church