TheMinisters' Manifesto refers to a series of manifestos written and endorsed by religious leaders inAtlanta,Georgia, United States, during the 1950s. The first manifesto was published in 1957 and was followed by another the following year. The manifestos were published during thecivil rights movement amidst a national process ofschool integration that had begun several years earlier. Manywhiteconservative politicians in theSouthern United States embraced a policy ofmassive resistance to maintainschool segregation. However, the 80 clergy members that signed the manifesto, which was published in Atlanta's newspapers on November 3, 1957, offered several key tenets that they said should guide any debate on school integration, including a commitment to keeping public schools open, communication between both white andAfrican American leaders, and obedience to the law. In October 1958, following theHebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple bombing in Atlanta, 311 clergy members signed another manifesto that reiterated the points made in the previous manifesto and called on thegovernor of Georgia to create a citizens' commission to help with the eventual school integration process in Atlanta. In August 1961, the city initiated the integration of its public schools.
TheNew Georgia Encyclopedia calls the first manifesto "the first document of its kind: a clear, if cautious, challenge to therhetoric of massive resistance by an established southern moral authority", a sentiment echoed by others, such as historianRebecca Burns and BishopLewis Bevel Jones III, who had helped draft the initial manifesto.
In theSouthern United States during the 1950s, many members of government were steadfastly in favor of maintainingracial segregation and in particular were vehemently opposed toschool integration that would have seenAfrican American andwhite American students enroll in the same institutions.[1] In 1953,elected officials inGeorgia approved anamendment to thestate's constitution that would allow theGeorgia General Assembly to privatize the state's public school system if they were given acourt order to integrate them.[1] The following year, theUnited States Supreme Court caseBrown v. Board of Education ruled againstschool segregation in public schools and called for these institutions to be integrated.[1] However, manyconservative Southern lawmakers continued to oppose this, and in 1956, another amendment to the Constitution of Georgia laid the groundwork for a possible privatization of Georgia's public schools.[1] That same year, many Southern elected officials at the national level, including all of Georgia'sSenators andRepresentatives, signed theSouthern Manifesto, a declaration to oppose school integration and theBrown ruling through a policy ofmassive resistance.[1] In September 1957, this resistance led to theLittle Rock Crisis inArkansas, whereArkansas GovernorOrval Faubus ordered theArkansas National Guard, accompanied by a mob of white Americans, to stop nine African American children from enteringLittle Rock Central High School inLittle Rock, Arkansas, which had previously been an all-white school.[1] The crisis was ultimately resolved whenUnited States PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower sent in soldiers from theUnited States Army to restore order and enforce the school's integration.[1]
Clergy members inAtlanta, Georgia, were concerned that a situation similar to what had occurred in Little Rock could also possibly occur in their city.[1] On November 3, 1957, 80 white members of the Atlanta Christian Council, anecumenical organization, issued a statement that was published in bothThe Atlanta Constitution andThe Atlanta Journal which outlined the members' stance on the issue of school integration.[1] The members outlined six main tenets that they felt should shape any debate on the topic,[1] which were, as quoted in the manifesto:[2]
Methodist PastorLewis Bevel Jones III helped to draft the manifesto.[2] WhileRabbi Jacob Rothschild of theHebrew Benevolent Congregation had also helped write the manifesto, he declined to sign it due to the Christianity-centric phrasing used, though he did support it ineditorials that were also published in theConstitution and theJournal.[1] The manifesto was later published inThe New York Times.[3][4] Additionally, organizations such as the Church Women United in Atlanta and the Executive Committee of the Church Women United in Georgia distributed thousands of copies of the manifesto.[5]
On October 12, 1958, theHebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple was bombed in aterrorist attack.[1] In response, in early November, about three weeks after the attack, local clergy issued a second manifesto called, "'Out of Conviction': A Second Statement on the South's Racial Crisis".[1] Among other things, this declaration, which was signed by 311 clergy members,[5] requested that thegovernor of Georgia establish a citizens' commission to help in the eventual integration of Atlanta.[1] On March 16, 1960, SenatorJacob Javits read some of this second manifesto into theCongressional Record.[6]
In February 1960, the city of Atlanta was ordered to desegregate their schools by a federal court.[1] In response, Georgia GovernorErnest Vandiver established the General Assembly Committee on Schools, informally known as theSibley Commission after its chairman John Sibley, to hold hearings and gather information on public sentiment regarding school integration throughout the state.[1] The majority report issued by the commission endorsed a "local option" that would give local communities the option of either closing down schools or accepting measures fortoken integration.[1] Following the report, the General Assembly passed a law codifying the local option policy, which was later used by Atlanta when it began to desegregate its schools in August 1961.[1] Despite the small scale of the integration (only nine African American students became enrolled in previously all-white schools), Atlanta's approach to integration was widely praised in news media, such as in stories inGood Housekeeping,Life,Look,Newsweek, andThe New York Times.[1] Additionally, PresidentJohn F. Kennedy recognized the city's integration efforts in apress conference.[1]
The first manifesto was, according to theNew Georgia Encyclopedia, "the first document of its kind: a clear, if cautious, challenge to therhetoric of massive resistance by an established southern moral authority".[1] In 2007, Jones, who had since become abishop in theUnited Methodist Church (UMC), andJoseph Lowery, a fellow UMC pastor andcivil rights leader who cofounded theSouthern Christian Leadership Conference, were interviewed onNPR'sMorning Edition on the 50th anniversary of the first manifesto.[2] Jones praised the courage of the ministers for their statements, and stated that, while the contents of the manifesto were "mild and extremely cautious", it was a groundbreaking declaration at the time of its publication. Jones also stated that the manifesto had helped the city to navigate through the tense situation regarding school integration and argued that more work from ministers was needed to continue the process of integrating schools in the area.[2] Regarding the 80 people who signed the manifesto, he said they "were more courageous than white ministers generally are today. We simply do not hear the calming, prophetic voices that this statement represented a half-century ago".[2] Jones, one of the last remaining living signers of the manifesto, died in 2018.[7] In a 2011 book, historianRebecca Burns stated that, while portions of the manifesto were offensive (such as a part in the manifesto where the clergy affirmed their opposition tomiscegenation), the manifesto was nonetheless "a bold step for Southern religious leaders" in opposing segregation.[8] In 2016, many clergy members in Atlanta put forward the Atlanta Interfaith Manifesto, a new declaration that had the goal of "denouncing religious bigotry and calling for interfaith cooperation".[4] Supporters, including then-Senior Rabbi Peter S. Berg of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation, compared the new manifesto to the 1957 document as part of a continued effort by religious leaders in the city to stand against racial and religious discrimination.[3][4]
