Fighting the Good Fight: The Story of the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, 1865-1977

271 Pages·2005·1.383 MB·English

by  Houston Bryan Roberson

Fighting the Good
Fight
The Story of the Dexter Avenue
King Memorial Baptist Church
1865-1977
Houston Bryan Roberson
Fighting the
Good Fight
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Fighting the
Good Fight
The Story of the Dexter Avenue
King Memorial Baptist Church
1865–1977
HOUSTON BRYAN ROBERSON
Published in 2005 by Published in Great Britain by
Routledge Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group Taylor & Francis Group
711 Third Avenue 2 Park Square
New York, NY 10017 Milton Park, Abingdon
Oxon OX14 4RN
© 2005 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-415-94920-3 (Hardcover) 0-415-94921-1 (Softcover)
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-415-94920-0 (Hardcover) 978-0-415-94921-7 (Softcover)
No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Roberson, Houston Bryan
Fighting the good fight : the story of the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, 1865–1977
/ by Houston Bryan Roberson. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-415-94920-3 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-415-94921-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church (Montgomery, Ala.)—History. 2. Montgomery
(Ala.)—Church history. 3. African Americans—Religion. 4. Race
relations—Religiousaspects—Christianity. 5. Reconciliation—Religious aspects—Baptists. 6. United
States—Racerelations. I. Title.
BX6480.M6R63 2005
286.1’76147—dc22 2004026365
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
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Taylor & Francis Group and the Routledge Web site at
is the Academic Division of T&F Informa plc. http://www.routledge-ny.com
For their unfailing love and support,
this book is dedicated to my parents,
Ralph and Madelene Ziegler Roberson
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xiii
Chapter 1 Called to Freedom, 1865–1905 1
Chapter 2 Workers that Needeth Not Be Ashamed, 1905–1916 25
Chapter 3 Waiting for a New Day, 1916–1948 51
Chapter 4 A Prophet Hath Been among Them, 1948–1953 81
Chapter 5 The Substance of Things Hoped for, 1954–1960 109
Chapter 6 Still, a Plentiful Harvest, 1960–1977 161
Conclusion: Fighting the Good Fight 189
Notes 203
Index 231
vii
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My debts are many. First, numerous libraries and archives have made
my research possible, including the Alabama State Historical Archives
and Montgomery Public Library, Montgomery, Alabama; the Selma
University Library, Selma, Alabama; the Samford University Archives,
Birmingham, Alabama; the Howard University Archives and the Library
of Congress, Washington, DC; and the American Baptist–Samuel
Colgate Library, Rochester, New York. Librarians and archivists at these
institutions cheerfully responded to numerous research requests and
gave of their time generously to help me locate many valuable sources.
I received several grants in support of this work. A Mowry Grant
and a Kaiser Fellowship from the University of North Carolina helped
me jump-start this project. I thank Dr. Anne Mitchell, Dr. Joseph
Mitchell, and Dr. Norma Taylor Mitchell for providing shelter for sev-
eral months during the initial research for the dissertation that served
as the basis for this book; they were gracious hosts and delightful emo-
tional support during the early phase of this project. I was given a
generous research fellowship from the Southern Poverty Law Center
that allowed me to complete most of my Alabama research. A Univer-
sity of California Regents Grant gave me six months of unfettered time
to complete an initial draft of this manuscript. Crucial to my produc-
tivity were the staff members at the University of California–Santa
Barbara’s Center for Black Studies: Marnean Adams, Ina Huggins, and
Dr.Charles Long. The George Lurcy Deep South Regional Humanities
Fellowship enabled me to finalize my research for this project.
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