Pastor Robert Graetz, only white man to help organize Montgomery bus boycott, dies at 92

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Robert Graetz, a White minister famously known for his support of the Montgomery bus boycott died on Sunday, according to a Facebook post from the Southeastern Synod Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Graetz served as a pastor to the majority-Black Trinity Lutheran Evangelical Church in Montgomery, Alabama. During the bus boycotts, he also helped organize carpools to drive his Black neighbors to work or shopping -- a move that wasn't well received by his white neighbors.

Graetz was the only White board member of the Montgomery Improvement Association, a group that formed in the days following Parks' arrests, to oversee the boycott, according to the Rosa Parks Museum at Troy University.

As a result of his involvement in the boycott, Graetz's home was bombed several times and he was harassed by White residents, according to The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. After Graetz's home was bombed a second time in 1957, he left Alabama to become pastor of St. Philip Lutheran Church in Columbus, Ohio where he continued to fight for civil rights issues and advocated in support of gay rights.
 
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quietpraiyze

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Robert Graetz, a White minister famously known for his support of the Montgomery bus boycott died on Sunday, according to a Facebook post from the Southeastern Synod Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Graetz served as a pastor to the majority-Black Trinity Lutheran Evangelical Church in Montgomery, Alabama. During the bus boycotts, he also helped organize carpools to drive his Black neighbors to work or shopping -- a move that wasn't well received by his white neighbors.

Graetz was the only White board member of the Montgomery Improvement Association, a group that formed in the days following Parks' arrests, to oversee the boycott, according to the Rosa Parks Museum at Troy University.

As a result of his involvement in the boycott, Graetz's home was bombed several times and he was harassed by White residents, according to The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. After Graetz's home was bombed a second time in 1957, he left Alabama to become pastor of St. Philip Lutheran Church in Columbus, Ohio where he continued to fight for civil rights issues and advocated in support of gay rights.

He put feet to his faith. It makes me think about this Scripture John 15:13. What a blessing and a witness of Christ. I can't imagine what all those white people did to this man, including the ones that were complicit in their silence, but he stayed the course and I'm so glad he did.

There's no telling how many hearts of black people were protected because they were in real relationship with one white person who said he was a Christian who actually lived it in their midst, in his skin - consistently. In doing so those black people knew there was at least one. God knows how to guard our hearts. There's also no telling how many white people were convicted and actually repented. God is so amazing....
 
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As a lapsed Lutheran, I am familiar with the Rev. Graetz. Black Lutheran congregations are rare, for historical reasons (up until after WWII, Lutherans were not part of the mainstream of American life). Also, the Rev. Graetz had been very much involved in the effort to help lesbian and gay people trying to navigate complicated lives in a country, and Church, that still rejected them.

Thank you, Pr. Graetz.
 
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