Epilogue

This chapter discusses Church’s waning influence and subsequent shift to more radical political activism in the 1930s and 1940s. Church resigned his position at the NAACP and argued with the newly appointed Walter White. While he remained respected as an African American leader, his relationship with the white community became increasingly adversarial. His fallout with Boss Crump in the 1930s led to Crump directly attacking him. At the same time, his relationship with socialist labor leader A. Philip Randolph became closer. The chapter ends with a discussion of the erasure of Church’s legacy in Memphis immediately after his death, and his daughter’s mission to restore it.

The Roving Dictator of the Lincoln Belt

This chapter begins by discussing the 1917 lynching of Ell Persons and the subsequent reaction of the black community to this extra-legal violence. In the aftermath of the lynching Church and his friend James Weldon Johnson used the platform of the Lincoln League to rally more support from black voters in the city, and helped to establish an NAACP branch in Memphis. As a result, Church would be named the director of the NAACP’s southern branches, thus cementing his legacy as a local leader.

Coming of Age

This chapter begins by discussing the death of Church Sr. and Church Jr.’s initial years as a local black Republican leader and his eventual ascendance within the GOP. It also highlights the beginning of Church’s approximately three-decade-long relationship with Boss E.H. Crump and his political machine. In 1916, Church launched the Lincoln League of Tennessee, a Republican faction designed to promote black interests and oppose the party’s lily-white faction. It later grew into the Lincoln League of America. Through this organization Church was launched into the national spotlight after he ushered over 10,000 black Memphians to the polls in November of 1916. This chapter also sees the birth of Church’s daughter, Sarah Roberta Church, who would follow in her father’s footsteps as a Republican leader and promoter of the black vote.

Man of Destiny

This chapter begins with the tragic loss of Church’s wife, Sallie. It also covers the height of Church’s influence as a black political leader as he becomes an advisor for Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. It also shows how critical Church was of the Republican Party, as he constantly warned the leaders of the GOP of the possible defection of black support as a result of their failed promises. Finally, it provides a closer look into the relationship between Church and Boss E.H. Crump on a local level and how Church negotiated opportunities for the black community in exchange for supporting Crump’s Democratic machine politics.

We Return Fighting

This chapter examines the political activism of Church during the post-World War I era. It begins with Church’s assistance with investigating the racial violence of the Elaine Race Riots amid the wider “Red Summer” of 1919. This chapter demonstrates the critical role Church played with the NAACP as it expanded in the South and investigated various incidents of racial violence in the Mississippi Delta, and his continued rise in the ranks of the national GOP, as he interacted with national figures like Republican National Chairman Will Hays. Also during this time, Church developed the Lincoln League of Tennessee into the Lincoln League of America, with chapters in 33 states, and he played a critical role in garnering African American support for presidential candidate Warren Harding during the 1920 presidential election.

Church Must Go

This chapter discusses the influence of Church’s machine politics in Memphis by focusing on the election of Mayor Watkins Overton, and the resistance he experienced from white Memphians. On a national level, Church is still the most powerful black Republican in the country, but for the first time he did not actively campaign for the Republican presidential nominee, Herbert Hoover, due to Hoover’s racism. This chapter perhaps best displays the criticism Church received from members of both the black and white communities, and how he struggled to remain relevant as the black-and-tan faction became disillusioned with the Republicans.

Introduction

This chapter outlines the book’s mission to serve as a lens into the political activity of African Americans during the first half of the twentieth century by focusing on the strategies that Robert R. Church Jr. used to organize and empower black people through the vote. The book argues that the activism of Church and his colleagues served as the catalyst for the modern civil rights movement. This chapter also seeks to answer the question how historians know so little about someone who accomplished so much.

Growing Up Church

This chapter focuses on Church’s early years by providing an overview of Robert Church Sr. and Anna Church. In particular, it discusses the strategies the black elite used to nurture a new class of leaders during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This chapter discusses Church’s educational background, his initial dealings with his father’s Solvent Saving’s Bank, and his early interest in pursuing a career in politics. Church’s early life serves as a window into the history of the era’s black entrepreneurs, black leadership, and black businesses, all considered against the legacy of slavery.