Conceived at the same conference that produced the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); the Student Interracial Ministry (SIM) was a national organization devoted to dismantling Jim Crow while simultaneously advancing American Protestant mainline churches' approach to race. In this book; David P. Cline details how; between the founding of SIM in 1960 and its dissolution at the end of the decade; the seminary students who created and ran the organization influenced hundreds of thousands of community members through its various racial reconciliation and economic justice projects. From inner-city ministry in Oakland to voter registration drives in southwestern Georgia; participants modeled peaceful interracialism nationwide. By telling the history of SIM--its theology; influences; and failures--Cline situates SIM within two larger frameworks: the long civil rights movement and the even longer tradition of liberal Christianity's activism for social reform.Pulling SIM from the shadow of its more famous twin; SNCC; Cline sheds light on an understudied facet of the movement's history. In doing so; he provokes an appreciation of the struggle of churches to remain relevant in swiftly changing times and shows how seminarians responded to institutional conservatism by challenging the establishment to turn toward political activism.
#833944 in Books Gordon K Mantler 2015-02-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.90 x .90 x 5.70l; 1.10 #File Name: 1469621886376 pagesPower to the Poor Black Brown Coalition and the Fight for Economic Justice 1960 1974 Justice Power and Politics
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Good book for all to read.By fernando adameExcellent book for history or sociology major college students1 of 2 people found the following review helpful. nobody will agree with it all but that's the point right?By Dan DuffyCircumstantial; detailed; with as well a broad survey of the literature; Gordon K. Mantler's history unpacks the perception you may have had in a political meeting that many of those present either do not understand each other or have no intention of working together. He gives the good and the bad of minority coalition politics in the 1970s; debunking the grandiose claims of its demagogues and the dismissive sneers of its opponents. Gordon winds up the book observing that you can't have a coalition if each group doesn't insist on its own identity. I agree with him though he might not agree with me that it sounds like mid-century whiteness as practiced by Richard Daley and the other bosses. An honest and tender book; highly recommended.
