Previous articleNext article FreeBook ReviewsDavid P. Cline, From Reconciliation to Revolution: The Student Interracial Ministry, Liberal Christianity, and the Civil Rights Movement. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2016. Pp. 276. $85.00 (cloth); $29.95 (paper).David LucanderDavid LucanderRockland Community College Search for more articles by this author Rockland Community CollegePDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreDavid P. Cline’s From Reconciliation to Revolution tells the story of how a small group of progressive Christians worked within their respective denominations to build “The Beloved Community” popularized by Martin Luther King Jr. Bound together by a common belief in “the importance of human beings’ reconciliation to one another as well as to God and Jesus Christ” (3), these seminarians and theology students created an interracial exchange program that put white and black seminary students in places where they could build bridges across the congregational color line that characterized American Protestantism in the 1960s. From Reconciliation to Revolution is the first book of its kind to document the accomplishments of a group that could be described as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)’s sibling organization.Because the Student Interracial Ministry (SIM) sought to “make the institutional church … be more racially inclusive” (200), it attracted far less attention than its secularly oriented counterpart—the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. With such considerable overlap between the two groups, there is little surprise that SIM’s student ministers delivered messages to Martin Luther King Jr. while he languished in a Birmingham jail, stood among the masses at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, worked on the divestment campaign to dismantle South African apartheid, participated in the 1968 Columbia University Strike, and supported James Foreman when he seized the pulpit at Riverside Church to issue the “Black Manifesto.” Likewise, SIM volunteers worked alongside notable figures such as Ella Baker, Ralph Abernathy, James Lawson, Julian Bond, Diane Nash, and Andrew Young.Chapter 1 describes SIM’s genesis at the 1960 Shaw University conference called by Ella Baker. Imbued with an optimistic faith in human goodwill, the Union Theological Seminary students left Raleigh that Easter weekend determined “to reform and renew the church itself, from the inside out” (19). SIM’s ecumenical orientation meant that it tended to operate under the radar, but its commitment to a student-driven interracial and interregional program underscores the shared ethos between it and SNCC when these organizations formed in 1960. Chapters 2–3 outline SIM’s work in the 1961–65 “golden era.” Cline gives details about SIM’s organizational structure, fund-raising efforts, and volunteer placements. A common theme in the experiences of Bob Carey, Hank Elkins, Thomas Hoyt, and many other SIM seminarians, is that “black and white students reported that the project gave them their first intimate interactions with the other race” (41). Chapter 4 focuses on SIM’s work in rural southwest Georgia. Charles Sherrod studied at Union Theological Seminary, and in his time there he established connections that allowed him to recruit nearly four dozen volunteers. This group spent considerable time doing civil rights work in the Albany region in the years 1965–68. This chapter makes a useful companion to excerpts from Hands on the Freedom Plow (2010) and selections from Eyes on the Prize (1991) for instructors crafting a unit about the long struggle for civil rights in the rural South. The book moves from country to city in chapter 5, detailing SIM’s attempt to redefine the urban ministry in places like Oakland, Chicago, and Baltimore. It is here that SIM grappled with vexing questions about what revolution looked like and how the church should respond to the unique problems of inner city life in the late 1960s. Chapter 6 presents an analysis of SIM’s collapse and situates the organization’s downfall within changing theological currents of the 1960s best characterized by the “Is God Dead?” cover of Time magazine.Although this is history written for historians, one of Cline’s key observations is that the period in question was full of idealistic young people who devoted themselves to creating the change that they wanted to see. Some of the characters featured in From Reconciliation to Revolution will undoubtedly be familiar to scholars of the Civil Rights Movement, but most of the individuals mentioned in this book are unknown to all but specialists within their respective fields. SNCC activist Charles Sherrod and Rev. Robert Seymour are two of the better-known figures that Cline studies, but even then their connections to SIM were never appreciated until now. Because it is a work of historical recovery aimed at unearthing SIM’s hidden history, Cline’s research often reminds us about the important contributions of overlooked individuals. For example, in her role as SNCC’s first paid staff member, Jane Stembridge worked alongside Ella Baker and Constance Curry to get this upstart organization off the ground. This devoutly Christian student came to SNCC through SIM and took a leave of absence from Union Theological Seminary to stay involved in the movement. With that decision made, she went on to become a “true galvanizing force behind the organization’s successful start” (11).From Reconciliation to Revolution is of particular interest for those studying the role of young adults in the Civil Rights Movement, religion in the Civil Rights Movement, and the history of civil rights activism in southwest Georgia. As such, Cline’s work is a worthy read alongside historiographical staples such as Andrew Young’s The Shadows of Youth (2009), Wesley Hogan’s Many Minds, One Heart (2009), Stephen Tuck’s Beyond Atlanta (2003), and David Chappell’s A Stone of Hope (2005). The fact that Cline is the first scholar to fully mine the Student Interracial Ministry Papers at Union Theological Seminary and to tell the story of this underappreciated group is a reminder that there is always work to be done for historians who are willing to go into the archives the old-fashioned way. Moreover, Cline is accomplished in oral history, and his expertise in this methodology adds greatly to the book’s scholarly significance. The author conducted thirty oral histories with SIM members, and this material is the basis for the most illuminating sections of From Reconciliation to Revolution. Hopefully an archive adopts these important primary sources and preserves them for future scholarly inquiry. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of African American History Volume 104, Number 1Winter 2019 A journal of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/701091 For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.