Robert R. Church Jr. and the African American Political Struggle

Southern Conference on African American Studies,

Inc. C. Calvin Smith Book Award



This volume highlights the little-known story of

Robert R. Church Jr., the most prominent black Republican of the 1920s and

1930s. Tracing Church's lifelong crusade to make race an important part of the

national political conversation, Darius Young reveals how Church was critical

to the formative years of the civil rights struggle.



A member of the black elite in Memphis,

Tennessee, Church was a banker, political mobilizer, and civil rights advocate

who worked to create opportunities for the black community despite the

notorious Democrat E. H. "Boss" Crump's hold over Memphis politics. Spurred by

the belief that the vote was the most pragmatic path to full citizenship in the

United States, Church founded the Lincoln League of America, which advocated

for the interests of black voters in over thirty states. He was instrumental in

establishing the NAACP throughout the South as it investigated various

incidents of racial violence in the Mississippi Delta. At the height of his

influence, Church served as an advisor for Presidents Harding and Coolidge,

generating greater participation of and recognition for African Americans in

the Republican Party.



Church's life and career offer a window into the

incremental, behind-the-scenes victories of black voters and leaders during the

Jim Crow era that set the foundation for the more nationally visible civil

rights movement to follow.



Publication of the paperback edition made

possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant

from the National Endowment for the Humanities.