Robert Graetz
| Robert Graetz | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 16, 1928 Clarksburg, West Virginia, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Capital University, Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary |
| Occupation | Clergyman, activist |
| Organization | Montgomery Improvement Association |
| Movement | African-American Civil Rights Movement |
| Spouse(s) | Jean Ellis |
Robert S. Graetz (born May 16, 1928) is a Lutheran clergyman who, as the white pastor of a black congregation in Montgomery, Alabama, openly supported the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a landmark event of the U.S. civil rights movement.
Graetz' first full-time job as pastor was to a black congregation, Trinity Lutheran Church in Montgomery. He began working there in 1955, the year of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. A personal friend of Rosa Parks [2], Graetz became secretary of the Montgomery Improvement Association [3], the organization founded to organize and support the boycott. Graetz' support of the movement included appearing at meetings led by Martin Luther King Jr. [4]
For his support of the boycott, Graetz and his family were ostracized by other whites and suffered several episodes of harassment, including tire slashings [5], arrest [6] and bombings. Bombs were planted at his home on three occasions; the largest did not explode. [7]
Graetz wrote A White Preacher's Memoir: The Montgomery Bus Boycott (Black Belt Press, September 1999. ) about his experiences. The book They Walked to Freedom 1955-1956: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Kenneth M. Hare (Sports Publishing LLC, 2005. ) contains a first-person account of his experiences as well as photographs of Graetz with King and others.
Graetz, of German descent, was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia, and educated in Columbus, Ohio. He graduated from Capital University in Bexley, Ohio in 1950 [8], and received a B.D. in 1955 from Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary in Columbus, Ohio (now Trinity Lutheran Seminary [9]. He married Jean Ellis (known as Jeannie) on June 10, 1951 in East Springfield, Pennsylvania. [10].
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