Race and Racial Tension in the Church

Particularly after the successful Montgomery bus boycott (1955-56), led nonviolently by Martin Luther King, Edgar Nixon and other black ministers and securing much of its organizational strength from religious networks amongst African-Americans, it was clear that in denominations with both white and black members, or in situations when white and black Christians met regularly, white church members could, and black church members would, no longer avoid relating their faith to their practice in race relations. The gradualist programme from 1957 is a response to rising tensions in the churches.