Table of Contents

Introduction: Segregation's Last Stronghold
Part I: The Forgotten Protests
Chapter One: "The start of a new movement across the South": The First Kneel-Ins, 1960
Chapter Two: "Christ did not build any racial walls": Church Desegregation Campaigns, 1961-65 Part II: Contexts of a Kneel-in Movement
Chapter Three: "This spectacle of a church with guarded doors": The Memphis Campaign of 1964
Chapter Four: "Like a child that had been unfaithful": A Church-Related College and a College-Related Church Chapter Five: "A time when the bare souls of men are revealed": Southern Presbyterians Respond
Part III: Memories of a Kneel-In Movement
Chapter Six: "You're going to have to go out there yourself": Church People Chapter Seven: "Our presence at the church is itself an act of worship": White Visitors
Chapter Eight: "You will only know my motivation when you open the door": Black Visitors Chapter Nine: "Mama, why don't they just let them in?": Children Part IV: Aftermath of a Kneel-In Movement
Chapter Ten: "The greatest crisis in the 120-year history of our church": Defiance, Intervention and Schism Chapter Eleven: "Not the church's advantages, but the city's disadvantages": Wrestling with the Past at Second Presbyterian Church
Chapter Twelve: "A season of prayer and corporate repentance": Wrestling with the Past at Independent Presbyterian Church
Epilogue
Notes
Index

About the Author

Stephen Haynes is Professor of Religious Studies, Rhodes College, and the author of many books, including Noah's Curse: The Biblical Justification of American Slavery.

Reviews

"A well-researched analysis of a church desegregation campaign in Memphis... As a thorough examination into local history, this work will nevertheless leave readers questioning its larger significance... Haynes's book provides a fitting entryway into a feature of the movement that is ripe for further analysis." --The Journal of American History
"Haynes's work is an important intervention... This complicated history, and the tangled memories that persist in the present, deserve the nuanced attention Haynes gives to them... The Last Segregated Hour remains an eminently accessible book due to its readability and clear prose. Speaking to the fact that religion remains culturally meaningful and historically significant, Haynes skillfully uncovers an overlooked history of kneel-ins." --The
Marginalia Review of Books
"Readers will learn much from this rich study of how grassroots historical actors produced an intriguing history that continues to shape the face of American Christianity today." --CHOICE
"In this courageous book, Stephen Haynes rejuvenates the great tradition of American public theology. Martin Luther King Jr. once asked of the white churches in the segregated South, 'Who is the God they worship?' but the question confounded King until his death. In The Last Segregated Hour, Stephen Haynes, a scholar of religion living in Memphis, pursues King's haunting words by telling the story of the 1960-65 'kneel-in' campaigns. Like the best
storytellers, Haynes attends to the intricacy of character and plot, reveals hidden motivations and creates an artful effect; and in his hands, a remarkable but untold episode of the American civil rights
movement becomes high theological drama. Haynes's book is essential reading for anyone interested in religion, race and the quest for beloved community. What a triumph!"--Charles Marsh, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Virginia
"The Last Segregated Hour is masterful historical scholarship. With insightful attention to detail coupled with superlative storytelling, Haynes presents the rarely discussed drama of modern Church-driven racial oppression and Southern-style peacemaking. It will surely be a classic in American religious history because the story of Memphis is paradigmatic for the whole of the American South. This book will usher in a new era of healing and racial
solidarity." --Anthony B. Bradley, author of The Political Economy of Liberation: Thomas Sowell and James Cone on the Black Experience
"The Last Segregated Hour is a rare book where depth of historical insight matches intensity of human emotion. Its account of student-led efforts to desegregate a landmark Memphis church is a model of empathy, balance, spiritual wisdom, institutional savvy, and moving biography. Stephen Haynes has drawn on detailed research to tell a powerful story. Read it, weep, but find reasons for hope as well." --Mark A. Noll, author of God and Race in
American Politics: A Short History
"Stephen R. Haynes's The Last Segregated Hour is a fascinating and eye-opening case study that illuminates one of the shadowy recesses of civil rights history. Focusing on the Memphis 'kneel-ins' of 1964-65, Haynes deftly reconstructs the often-overlooked movement to desegregate the white churches of the Jim Crow South. The dramatic stories of courage and resistance that populate this important book demonstrate the complex relationship between religion
and social justice, documenting the historic struggle to persuade the region's faith-based institutions to practice what they preach." --Raymond Arsenault, author of Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for
Racial Justice
"Haynes skillfully weaves the many strands of this story together with a fine attention to detail and nuance. His narrative lets many voices speak, a major strength of the work made possible by his use of over 150 interviews with participants and observers, including white students from Southwestern, black student activists, and church members who often sat silent but bewildered by the activity on the front portico." --The Journal of Southern Religion