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Robert S. Graetz, Rare White Minister to Back Bus Boycott, Dies at 92 Robert S. Graetz, Rare White Minister to Back Bus Boycott, Dies at 92
(about 2 hours later)
As a young Lutheran minister in Alabama in the 1950s, the Rev. Robert S. Graetz Jr. would alternate his driving routes to thwart attackers. He once measured a 15-inch-deep crater left by a bomb that had targeted his home in Montgomery. And to shield his young children from fear — and the shards of glass that would follow another explosion — he would play a “game” with them in which they would crawl behind a couch when there was a suspicious sound outside.As a young Lutheran minister in Alabama in the 1950s, the Rev. Robert S. Graetz Jr. would alternate his driving routes to thwart attackers. He once measured a 15-inch-deep crater left by a bomb that had targeted his home in Montgomery. And to shield his young children from fear — and the shards of glass that would follow another explosion — he would play a “game” with them in which they would crawl behind a couch when there was a suspicious sound outside.
Defying the menacing of the Ku Klux Klan, intimidation by the authorities and isolation among fellow clergymen, Mr. Graetz remained a rare, unbowed voice for desegregation among white people in Alabama, supporting the Montgomery bus boycott that transformed the nation’s budding civil rights movement.Defying the menacing of the Ku Klux Klan, intimidation by the authorities and isolation among fellow clergymen, Mr. Graetz remained a rare, unbowed voice for desegregation among white people in Alabama, supporting the Montgomery bus boycott that transformed the nation’s budding civil rights movement.
“I have always contended that the absence of fear is not the point,” Mr. Graetz wrote in “A White Preacher’s Message on Race and Reconciliation: Based on His Experiences Beginning with the Montgomery Bus Boycott,” a memoir published in 2006. “What you do when you are afraid is what makes the difference. We often had good reason to be afraid.”“I have always contended that the absence of fear is not the point,” Mr. Graetz wrote in “A White Preacher’s Message on Race and Reconciliation: Based on His Experiences Beginning with the Montgomery Bus Boycott,” a memoir published in 2006. “What you do when you are afraid is what makes the difference. We often had good reason to be afraid.”
Mr. Graetz, who seemed to toggle seamlessly between foot soldier and field general in civil rights and social justice causes for roughly seven decades, died on Sunday. He was 92. Mr. Graetz, who seemed to toggle seamlessly between foot soldier and field general in civil rights and social justice causes for seven decades, died on Sunday at his home in Montgomery. He was 92. In confirming the death, Kenneth Mullinax, a friend and a family spokesman, said Mr. Graetz had been in hospice care in recent months with Parkinson’s disease.
Mr. Graetz had Parkinson’s disease and had been in hospice care in recent months. Kenneth Mullinax, a friend and a family spokesman, confirmed the death, at Mr. Graetz’s home in Montgomery. Mr. Graetz never gained the international prominence of a friend, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., nor the through-the-ages symbolism of a neighbor, Rosa Parks. But as the pastor of Montgomery’s all-Black Trinity Lutheran Church, he was a forceful advocate for equality, accepting scorn and derision.
Mr. Graetz never possessed the international prominence and presence of a friend, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., nor the through-the-ages symbolism of a neighbor, Rosa Parks. But Mr. Graetz, as the pastor of Montgomery’s all-Black Trinity Lutheran Church, was a forceful advocate for equality, accepting scorn and derision for a stand now seen as among the most principled of a turbulent era in Alabama’s segregated capital. The bus boycott began less than six months after Mr. Graetz arrived in Montgomery, the state’s capital, after Mrs. Parks’ arrest. Although word of her detention spread quickly through the city’s Black neighborhoods, Mr. Graetz, a newcomer, did not know what had happened until another minister alerted him to plans for a protest that were afoot.
The bus boycott began less than six months after Mr. Graetz arrived in Montgomery, following the arrest of Mrs. Parks. Although word of her detention spread quickly through the city’s Black neighborhoods, Mr. Graetz, a newcomer, did not know what had happened until another minister alerted him to burgeoning plans for a protest. Mr. Graetz telephoned Mrs. Parks, who sometimes led N.A.A.C.P. activities at his church, to inquire about the expected demonstration. Only then did he learn that it was her arrest that had prompted the action.
Mr. Graetz telephoned Mrs. Parks, a neighbor who sometimes led N.A.A.C.P. activities at his church, to inquire about the anticipated demonstration. Only then did he learn that it was her arrest that had prompted the action. Mr. Graetz, with the help of his wife, Jeannie Graetz, aided the boycott. In his Sunday sermon he urged parishioners not to board Montgomery’s buses on Monday and offered them rides to work. After a Monday morning spent giving rides to Black residents, he went to the courthouse to watch Mrs. Parks’ trial, which proved swift: She was found guilty and fined. Mr. Graetz was forbidden to sit in the courtroom’s “colored” section.
Mr. Graetz and his wife, Jeannie, elected to aid the boycott, in part to remain effective in their new church. The pastor used his Sunday sermon to urge parishioners to avoid Montgomery’s buses on Monday and offered rides to work. He spent Monday morning driving Black residents and then went to the courthouse, where the norms of segregation forbade him from sitting in the “colored” section during Mrs. Parks’s swift trial. The boycott, first planned as a one-day event on Dec. 5, 1955, lasted more than a year, and Mr. Graetz continued to drive Black residents to and from work. Some white ministers privately endorsed the desegregation effort but dared not speak publicly for fear of being condemned by their congregations.
The boycott, first planned as a one-day event, did not end quickly, and Mr. Graetz continued to drive Black residents. Although some white ministers privately endorsed the desegregation effort, public gestures of support were met with condemnation and quick dismissals from their congregations. Not Mr. Graetz. Wearing a cross that read “Father, Forgive Them,” he appeared at the courthouse with Dr. King — captured in a photograph on the front page of The New York Times — and became so well known that The Montgomery Advertiser asked him what it was like to live as a pariah.
Not Mr. Graetz. He appeared with Dr. King at the courthouse while wearing a cross that read “Father, Forgive Them” — and was pictured on the front page of The New York Times doing so — and became so well known that The Montgomery Advertiser asked him what it was like to live as a pariah.
“I don’t know any pariahs,” he replied.“I don’t know any pariahs,” he replied.
But Mr. Graetz’s activism and closeness with Montgomery’s Black residents made him a target for white supremacists, including members of the Ku Klux Klan. In August 1956, the boycott having already stretched more than eight months, the parsonage where Mr. Graetz lived was the target of a bombing. The pastor and his family were traveling in Tennessee at the time of the attack, which Montgomery’s mayor suggested was a publicity stunt by supporters of the bus boycott. Mr. Graetz became a target of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists. In August 1956, while he and his family were traveling in Tennessee, his parsonage was damaged in a bombing. The mayor of Montgomery suggested that it was a publicity stunt by supporters of the bus boycott.
The boycott ended in December 1956, just over a year after it began, but anger continued to simmer. In January 1957, while the Graetz family, including a newborn, slept, a bomb exploded outside their home at 2 a.m. Again, no one was injured. Mrs. Parks later memorialized the attack in notes that the Graetz family purchased at auction in 2018 and donated to Alabama State University, a historically Black institution in Montgomery. The boycott ended in December 1956, but anger continued to simmer. In January 1957, while the Graetz family, including a newborn, slept, a bomb exploded outside their home at 2 a.m. No one was injured. Mrs. Parks later memorialized the attack in notes that the Graetz family purchased at auction in 2018 and donated to Alabama State University, a historically Black institution in Montgomery.
Although the authorities made arrests in connection with the attacks, the suspects were acquitted, Mr. Graetz thought, because the all-white juries begrudged him for helping Black residents. Although the authorities made arrests in the attacks, the suspects were acquitted by all-white juries. Mr. Graetz believed that the jurors had begrudged him for helping Blacks.
“If anything, a white person who was helping a Black person was seen as worse than the Black person,” he recalled in an interview in August 2018. “If anything, a white person who was helping a Black person was seen as worse than the Black person,” he said in an interview for this obituary in August 2018.
He found particular solace in the 27th Psalm, which includes the verse, “Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.”He found particular solace in the 27th Psalm, which includes the verse, “Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.”
Robert S. Graetz Jr. was born in Clarksburg, W.Va., on May 16, 1928. His family, with a lineage of Lutheran clergymen, typecast him early as a future minister, with his paternal grandfather addressing him in German at seemingly every opportunity and often speaking to him at an early age about a life in the church. Robert S. Graetz Jr. was born in Clarksburg, W.Va., on May 16, 1928. Early on, his family, with a lineage of Lutheran clergymen, pegged him as a future minister.
Growing up in the West Virginia of the Great Depression and World War II eras, the boy attended segregated schools and, as he acknowledged in his memoir, most likely referred to Black people as “colored people.” Growing up in West Virginia during the Great Depression and World War II, Robert attended segregated schools. He considered a career in medicine but enrolled at Capital University, in Columbus, Ohio, to study theology. He became interested in civil rights while writing a sociology course term paper about inequality in education. He soon founded a campus group to focus on race relations and joined the Columbus chapter of the N.A.A.C.P.
He considered a career in medicine but enrolled at Capital University, in Columbus, Ohio, as a pre-theological student. It was in the late 1940s at Capital that he became interested in civil rights, after preparing a sociology course term paper that explored inequality in education. He soon founded a race relations group for the campus and joined the Columbus chapter of the N.A.A.C.P., taking the streetcar to meetings. He married Jeannie Ellis in 1971 and had seven children with her. She survives him. (A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.)
He married Jeannie Ellis, with whom he had seven children, in 1951. She survives him. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available. The couple moved to Alabama in 1955 and lived in Montgomery for several years (Mr. Graetz was a groomsman at the wedding of Fred Gray, Mrs. Parks’s lawyer) before moving to Ohio, where Mr. Graetz had taken a position at a church there. Dr. King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, gave them a silver serving tray as a going-away gift. The tray remained in a place of honor in the Graetz home in Montgomery, where the couple continued to meet with student groups and others on civil rights pilgrimages in later years.
The couple moved to Alabama in 1955 and lived in Montgomery for several years — Mr. Graetz was even a groomsman to Fred Gray, Mrs. Parks’s lawyer — before the pastor took a position at a church in Ohio. Before the family moved there, Dr. King and his wife, Coretta, brought them a gift of a silver serving tray. Even in recent years, the tray remained in a place of honor at Mr. Graetz’s home in Montgomery, where the couple lived in semiretirement and routinely met with student groups and participants on civil rights pilgrimages. “We feel God has given us the unique privilege of standing with one foot in the Black community and one foot in the white,” Mr. Graetz wrote in his memoir. “It may not be comfortable, but that is where we are. And until God tells us it is time to slow down, we intend to keep pressing ahead with our witness.”
“We feel God has given us the unique privilege of standing with one foot in the Black community and one foot in the white,” he wrote in his memoir. “It may not be comfortable, but that is where we are. And until God tells us it is time to slow down, we intend to keep pressing ahead with our witness.”
Before Mr. Graetz first went to Alabama, church officials, he wrote, “made me promise to focus on being a pastor and not to start any trouble in Montgomery.”
Considering the admonition decades later, Mr. Graetz said in his book, “I still believe I kept my promise!”
He never made trouble, he would say wryly. He only joined it.