Getting Right with God: Southern Baptists and Desegregation. 1945-1995

In this historical study of race and the postwar Southern Baptist Convention, Newman argues that most white Southern Baptists were ""moderates"" on racial issues; they supported de jure segregation, because their primary concern was obeying the law, then slowly changed after court decisions and new legislation mandated desegregation. On either side were vocal minorities: hard-line segregationists argued that biblical Christianity required a total separation of the races, while progressive Baptists criticized racist policies as contrary to Christ's example. This is a solid, if pedestrian, study; the prose is forthright and the book's organization efficient, though a bit uninspired. (Nov. 15)