Synopses & Reviews
The civil rights movement was arguably the most successful social movement in American history. In a provocative new assessment of its success, David Chappell argues that the story of civil rights is not a story of the ultimate triumph of liberal ideas after decades of gradual progress. Rather, it is a story of the power of religious tradition.
Chappell reconsiders the intellectual roots of civil rights reform, showing how northern liberals' faith in the power of human reason to overcome prejudice was at odds with the movement's goal of immediate change. Even when liberals sincerely wanted change, they recognized that they could not necessarily inspire others to unite and fight for it. But the prophetic tradition of the Old Testament sometimes translated into secular language drove African American activists to unprecedented solidarity and self-sacrifice. Martin Luther King Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, James Lawson, Modjeska Simkins, and other black leaders believed, as the Hebrew prophets believed, that they had to stand apart from society and instigate dramatic changes to force an unwilling world to abandon its sinful ways. Their impassioned campaign to stamp out "the sin of segregation" brought the vitality of a religious revival to their cause. Meanwhile, segregationists found little support within their white southern religious denominations. Although segregationists outvoted and outgunned black integrationists, the segregationists lost, Chappell concludes, largely because they did not have a religious commitment to their cause.
Review
"In its mix of rigor, daring and perceptiveness, A Stone of Hope is a spectacular work." The New York Times Book Review
Review
"One of the three or four most important books on the Civil Rights movement." The Atlantic Monthly
Review
"Chappell writes engagingly, drawing an important revisionist portrait of the crucial role of religion in defeating Jim Crow." Publishers Weekly
Review
"This nuanced, compellingly argued book makes sense of the contingent factors that conspired to bring the movement success and explains why it is so difficult to marshal those dynamics for further social change." Library Journal
Synopsis
In a new assessment of the Civil Rights Movement, Chappell argues that its success was not due to the triumph of liberal ideas after decades of gradual progress, but to the tradition of prophetic religion that brought the vitality of a religious revival to the integrationist cause. Segregationists lost, he says, because they did not have support in their white southern religious denominations.
About the Author
David L. Chappell teaches history at the University of Arkansas. He is author of Inside Agitators: White Southerners in the Civil Rights Movement.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1. Hungry Liberals: Their Sense That Something Was Missing
Chapter 2. Recovering Optimists
Chapter 3. The Prophetic Ideas That Made Civil Rights Move
Chapter 4. Prophetic Christian Realism and the 1960s Generation
Chapter 5. The Civil Rights Movement as a Religious Revival
Chapter 6. Broken Churches, Broken Race: White Southern Religious Leadership and the Decline of White Supremacy
Chapter 7. Pulpit versus Pew
Chapter 8. Segregationist Thought in Crisis: What the Movement Was Up Against
Conclusion. Gamaliel, Caesar, and Us
Appendix. A Philosophical Note on Historical Explanation
Notes
Archival and Manuscript Sources
Bibliographical Essay
Acknowledgments
Index