Sanctuaries of Segregation: The Story of the Jackson Church Visit Campaign by Carter Dalton Lyon (review)

While most histories of the civil rights movement deal with the power struggle between black people and the white establishment, Carter Dalton Lyon's Sanctuaries of Segregation: The Story of the Jackson Church Visit Campaign demonstrates that many civil rights activists hoped to reach a more personal level. Lyon chronicles the 1963 and 1964 efforts of activists who sought to integrate twenty-two all-white churches in Jackson, Mississippi. While "kneel-ins" were common across the South, the Jackson activists, mostly students from the traditionally black Tougaloo College, not only wanted to pierce the wall of segregation but also genuinely desired to worship in these churches and to create a dialogue with white Christians.

The book has fifteen chapters, including the introduction and the afterword. Chapters 2–4 sketch out the context leading to the kneel-in activities. Brown v. Board of Education (1954) shocked and horrified white southerners, and many saw the church as a last line of defense. The Mississippi legislature debated bills that would allow local congregations to take over church property from the national denominations in order to prevent integration. Black southerners saw kneel-in activities as a by-product of direct-action campaigns such as sit-ins. Both groups came to see the white church as a bastion of segregation, and they knew that if churches integrated, Jim Crow would fall. Chapters 5–14 look at the ten-month effort of Tougaloo students, their professors, and northern ministers to integrate Jackson's churches. The activists were met with resistance from ministers, congregants, Jackson officials, and the quasi-leader of the state, the Jackson White Citizens' Council. Despite arrests, physical threats, police harassment, and criticism by the state's largest newspapers, the activists persevered. Even though most segregated churches in Jackson did not welcome African Americans in 1964, many opened up under ever-increasing pressure by 1966.

Lyon's book is unique because it adds to our understanding of the complexity of civil rights protest on a local level. The activists stressed the unity of all Christians under God. Even in the face of resistance, they forced many white Mississippi Christians to question their most cherished beliefs. Lyon does a magnificent job of fleshing out the quandary many Jackson pastors faced. Some favored opening their doors to all, but they faced the reality of angry congregations that did not. These pastors and their moderate congregants also faced the wrath of the Citizens' Council, which threatened their livelihoods and reputations. Despite these threats, student activists strove to pierce the consciences of white Christians and to help them recognize the reality that they valued white supremacy over the gospel of Jesus Christ. While most white congregants dismissed the kneel-ins as misguided and poorly timed, Lyon concludes that without direct confrontation, the churches would not have integrated.

Lyon builds his narrative on a vast array of sources, using the personal papers of many of the participants as well as collections from various denominations and churches. He also interviewed over forty participants on both sides of the conflict. One of the book's weaknesses is Lyon's failure to deeply embed the church visit program in the context of other civil rights actions in Mississippi. Lyon mentions the murder of Medgar Evers and the struggle for civil rights in Birmingham, Alabama, but fails to show how the church visit movement played out against the backdrop of other efforts, including wade-ins and voter registration efforts. Lyon does a good job of sketching out the conflict northern ministers encountered when they returned home, but he says little about the aftermath for the Tougaloo students who served on the frontlines of the struggle. Sanctuaries of Segregation is a much-needed addition to the literature on a lesser-known area of the civil rights...