Blessed are the peacemakers: Martin Luther King, Jr., eight white religious leaders, and the "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

Abstract

S. JONATHAN BASS. Blessed Are Peacemakers: Martin Luther King, Jr., Eight White Religious Leaders, and Letter from Birmingham Jail. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 2001. Pp. xiv ± 322, illustrations, bibliography, index. $39.95. According to S. Jonathan Bass, the purpose of this book is to tell history of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 'Letter from Birmingham Jail.' To accomplish this task, Bass poses and answers five questions about letter and eight white clergymen who unwittingly inspired its writing when they petitioned Dr. King to wait until some other time to protest racist practices Birmingham, Alabama. The five questions are: Why and how it was written? How and where was it prepared and published? Who were eight white ministers addressed letter? What were their backgrounds? What do their careers tell us about white religious community during civil rights era? Although author does not acknowledge it, these five questions are not new. They are historic queries that a small army of scholars have repeatedly raised and answered varying ways and degrees since assassination of Dr. King 1968. Because of widespread attention these questions have received during past thirty-some years, we are compelled to ponder why Bass is raising them again. Is he simply doing what all good historians are trained to do and thus seeking to bring new light to our understanding of these historic questions? Or, does he have an agenda that is more subterranean than apparent? We do not have to speculate long here. In second paragraph of preface author says, in these pages I hope you will a and generally objective study of history of [Dr. King's] letter and of [eight] leading white church and synagogue leaders Alabama 1963. Although he leaves it unstated, Bass wants his readers to do a bit more than simply find his study balanced and objective. His subterranean goal seems to be to convince readers that eight clergy deserve a more elevated position than what scholars thus far have given them. Until now, most interpretations have portrayed clerics as either misinformed religionists who did not understand interrelationship between Gospel and social activism or covert defenders of Birmingham racism. Bass' hidden agenda is to remove raiment of ignorance or racism from these men and re-clothe them saintly robes of blessed peacemakers. To absolve eight clerics of charge of racism, Bass moves his study two directions. First, he brings forth heretofore largely unexamined papers and oral testimonies of eight clergy. He uses these sources to advance idea that men were innocent peacemaking moderates that have been unfairly judged by some historians. As he moves his plot along, he increasingly casts these clergy as wise proponents of a gradualist approach to resolution of racial problems 1963 Birmingham. He projects gradualist approach of clergy on race issues as reason they became trapped between two unyielding forces. These were status quo position of hardcore racists who were determined to maintain staid old Birmingham racism and impatience of Dr. King and his followers who were just as determined to immediately overthrow that anti-blackness. Throughout this study, author subtly and shrewdly lifts up gradualist position of eight clerics as being more realistic, if not honorable, than immediate position of Dr. …