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

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 and other black leaders of this period were 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 helped enfranchise thousands of black southerners. He was instrumental in establishing the NAACP throughout the South. 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.