Friedland, Michael B.

Whes the Supreme Court declared in 1954 that segregated schools were unconstitutional the highest echelons of American religious organizations enthusiastically supported the ruling. Many white southern stergy, however, were outspoken in their delense of segregation and even those who supported integration were wary of risking their positions. Those who did so found themselves abandoned by friends, attacked by white supremacists, and often ariven from their communities

Michael Friedland offers a collective biography of several southern and nationally known white religious leaders-including William Sloane Coffin Jr, Daniel and Philip Benigan, Abraham joshua Heschel, Eugene Carson Blake, Robert McAfee Brown, and Will D. Campbell -who did step forward to join the major social protest movements of the mid-twentieth century, tending their support first to the civil rights movement and later to protests over American involvement in Vietnam.

Michael B. Friedland, who received his Ph.D. in history from Boston College, works for education reform with the National Faculty.