This is an interesting study of a somewhat neglected aspect of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. It highlights the widespread efforts to integrate churches of the major Protestant denominations in the South through “kneel-ins” at regular Sunday worship services by integrated teams of mostly young activists. The book focuses specifically on the efforts at integration in the churches of Jackson, Mississippi, the capital city of a state known for its fierce resistance to integration before, during, and after the 1960s.

The author notes that there was some agitation, and certainly strong opposition, to the thought of church integration in Jackson at the start of the 1960s. Not until early 1963 did organized kneel-ins occur in the city. The author focuses on Methodist downtown churches, in part because they were the most prominent congregations, but especially because Methodist archival resources for Mississippi are so rich. Moreover, the liberal biblical and public positions of Methodism nationally provided a constant counterpoint and critique of the official positions of Jackson Methodists. Church visits began regularly in early 1963 and did not end until the local churches opened their doors racially during and after 1965. Professor Lyon effectively and in almost overwhelming detail makes this history the central focus of his book.

The study is a rich anecdotal history, including precise and lengthy arguments pro and con by the participants and detailed accounts of the votes that frequently occurred in local church gatherings and in national denominational meetings. Despite his primary concern with the Methodists, Lyon is comprehensive in his approach. He also studies kneel-ins among the Jackson Presbyterians, Disciples of Christ, Baptists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and even Unitarians. All of this debate and agitation is documented chiefly from local, but sometimes also national, archival sources. (The Catholic Church was a minor element in heavily Protestant Jackson and Mississippi, and, at least, officially it was racially inclusive by the 1960s.)

Already noted is the deep and wide archival research which undergirds this study. Many personal collections of papers were utilized of key Jackson pastors, activists, and denominational leaders from outside Mississippi who came to demonstrate. Lyon also enhanced his narrative by conducting at least seventy oral history interviews with participants or close relatives of the participants. These remembrances provide much of the grainy, day-to-day details that enhance the narrative. Specificity may overburden the account at times. To this reader, this seems especially true of chapters 9–11, which might be enhanced with more judicious editing and summarizing of the narrative at the end of chapters

Oral history and broad archival research lead to fascinating historical recreations. Ed King, a white Methodist minister and chaplain at Tougaloo College, the predominantly black college on the outskirts of Jackson, emerges as a key and imaginative leader of the young student activists who were the primary week-by-week participants in the struggle. Lyon also delineates the resisters clearly—church members but also key members of the Citizen's Council, the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, local public officials, and unfriendly Methodist leaders, especially the local bishop.

This wide archival research base also enables Lyon to provide a stirring climax to his narrative. In the spring of 1964, more than a year after the demonstrations began, two Methodist bishops, one black and one white, were denied admission to the Easter worship service at Galloway Methodist Church, the largest and most influential Methodist congregation in downtown Jackson! In 1965, Galloway formally changed its exclusionary policy. Lyon suggests this occurred not only because of the stubborn and persistent efforts to integrate weekly worship services, but also because public school integration was beginning (finally) in Jackson, and because the Jackson Chamber of Commerce urged citywide compliance with the new federal Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and l965. As had been the case for so long, the churches did not lead, they followed.

Criticisms can be made. There are constant references to the “Tougaloo activists” but little or no exploration of the college itself, its history, or the reasons for the special racial commitments of students, faculty, and administrators. A similar comment could apply to Millsaps College, a Methodist-related school in Jackson somewhat less involved in the church demonstrations. The larger history of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, especially as it related to Mississippi, is mentioned but treated too lightly. The Freedom Rides of the early 1960s, which often ended in Jackson, are also brought up but never explained adequately. More important is the inadequate discussion of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and its direct involvement in Mississippi. Although focused on politics and community development, SNCC helped to create the public fears that lay behind the deep segregationist resistance affecting Jackson's churches; more needs to be said about it. Similar criticism applies regarding the National Council of Churches. The Council was the ecumenical organization that overarched all of the mainline Protestant churches and became directly involved in Mississippi in the 1960s, chiefly through a specially constituted Commission on Religion and Race. Lyon notes but never develops adequately the relationship between the NCC and the churches in Mississippi in the 1960s—such as the impact of the Delta Ministry or the role the Commission's lawyer, Jack Pratt, played as a legal representative in court for kneel-in demonstrators who were arrested.

Despite these caveats, the overall impressions of this study are quite positive. The irony of biblical imperatives supporting unequivocally racial and human equality being explained away by the deeply entrenched white church people of Jackson throughout the 1960s hangs over the entire narrative. In this ironic mode Lyon concludes. He notes that Ed King today is an active member of Galloway Church, a congregation that in the 1960s “repeatedly barred his entry—because of his insistence that segregated worship was contrary to Christianity” (287). These words are a fitting ending to an important historical study.