The Southern Baptist Convention & Civil Rights, 1954-1995: Conservative Theology, Segregation, and Change

David Roach

dhj 2021 · Monographs in Baptist History Libri 22 · Wipf and Stock Publishers

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According to conventional wisdom, theological liberals led the Southern Baptist Convention to reject segregation and racism in the twentieth century. That’s only half the story. Liberals criticized segregation before mainstream Southern Baptists. They created racially integrated ministry opportunities. They pressed the Southern Baptist Convention to reject segregation. Yet historians have discounted the role of conservative theology in the convention’s shift away from racial segregation and prejudice. This book chronicles how conservative theology proved remarkably compatible with efforts toward racial justice in America’s largest Protestant denomination between 1954 and 1995. At times conservative theology was even a catalyst for rejecting racial prejudice. Efforts to eradicate racism and segregation were, in fact, least successful when they appealed to the social gospel or appeared to draw from liberal theology.

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David Roach (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is a historian, journalist, and preacher in Nashville, Tennessee. His writings have appeared in Christianity Today, Baptist Press, and numerous Baptist state papers.