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Rev. Robert Graetz, an Alabama minister who helped organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott, has died https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/09/21/robert-graetz-dies-white-minister-who-helped-organize-montgomery-bus-boycott-obituary/2054186002/ via @mgmadvertiser @lyman_brian
Rev. Graetz attempted, unsuccessfully, to recruit other local white clergy to join in support of the boycott. He was unsuccessful, and Montgomery's white community shunned the Graetz family. In addition to his ministerial work, Graetz drove carpools and raised funds.
"like other participants in the boycott, the reverend and his family persisted in the face of harassment, terrorism, and death threats that extended to their preschool children. Vandals poured sugar in their gas tank; slashed their tires and sprayed acid over their cars."
When the Graetz home was bombed for the *first* time, city officials accused the MIA of setting it off themselves as a publicity stunt. https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/09/21/robert-graetz-dies-white-minister-who-helped-organize-montgomery-bus-boycott-obituary/2054186002/
Graetz told @MGMAdvertiser in 1956, near the start of the Bus Boycott: “... I know that I shall be criticized for my stand. I may even suffer violence. But I cannot minister to souls alone. My people also have bodies.”
I live just down the street from the Graetz home today and would regularly see Mrs. Jean push his wheelchair down the road when the weather was nice. Thinking of her and the Graetz family tonight. An incredible life.
