by Roger Crain

Created on: July 18, 2009   Last Updated: July 22, 2009

The civil rights movement had its origins in the basement of a black baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama. Therefore, it would be in that venerable institution where many strategy sessions were held so that movement activists would be imbued with the ammo needed to dismantle the segregationist forces they contended with on a daily basis. Dr. King would be the commander-in-chief who would rallied some of his staunchest lieutenants to make sure the movement didn't lose the moral focus of the work they were called to do.

These men first test of loyalty to the movement; and thus, keeping it a moral force to be reckon with was the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955. Also, the Brown decision of 1954 gave these mission-bound clergymen the additional incentive to proceed ahead with the boycott which lasted for thirteen months. Yet during the economic boycott, Dr. King and his entourage of black clergymen would hold strategy sessions to prove that the moral purpose of the civil rights movement was not to be belittled.

Thus, the black church frequently came under attack as a political forum; it wasn't that the institution had lost touched with its mission, but if it was to be a more viable entity in the community, then church members had to step out of their common zones and fight a just cause of De-segregating public schools and places of public accommodations. Such was the situation in Montgomery, Alabama during that volatile time in our not too distant past.

Also, the black church played a strategic role in the sit-in movement, a mini movement with the civil rights movement. On February 1, 1960, four black college students of Greensboro, North Carolina went into a Woolworth Department Store and sat down at the lunch counter. They sat there for an indeterminate amount of time yet they were not served. Dr. King and his entourage of black clergymen aided and abetted these black collegians by using their tactic as an effective measure to passively fight rank injustices in their midst. Consequently, Time Magazine came out with a perennial issue describing the sit-in tactic "as the south's new time bomb."

Another role that the black church played in the civil rights movement was that of a promoter of nationally, publicized events. For example, even before the march on Washington occurred, word was passed among black Christians at their respective churches how they could help movement activists achieved their stated purpose. They did this en masse and the result was a quarter of a million people who showed up on the national mall in Washington D. C. to give Dr. King their unyielding support.

Finally, throughout its history, the black church have played many roles in securing the civil and equal rights of black people in this country. It has been a tireless crusader in eliminating the indignities and frequent injustices that black people contended with since this country's inception. Also, we can rest assured that it will continue to do so where ever injustice reigns.

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