James Reeb (January 1, 1927 – March 11, 1965) was a white American Unitarian Universalist minister from Boston, Massachusetts and pastor and civil rights activist in Washington, DC. While marching for civil rights in Selma, Alabama in 1965, he was beaten severely by white segregationists and died of head injuries two days later in the hospital. He was 38 years old.
Contents |
James Joseph Reeb was born in Wichita, Kansas.[1] He attended St. Olaf College and Princeton Theological Seminary,[2] and he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister after graduation.[3]
As a scholar of theology, Reeb grew away from traditionalist Presbyterian teachings and was drawn to the Unitarian Universalist church.[3] Reeb appreciated the church's emphasis on social action,[4] and he became active in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Beginning in his new ministry, he encouraged parishioners to participate in the movement as well. With his wife and four children, he lived in poor black neighborhoods where he felt he could do the most good. After three years of active service at All Souls Church in Washington, D.C., Reeb was fully ordained as a Unitarian Universalist minister in 1962.[5]
A member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Reeb took part in the Selma to Montgomery protest march in 1965 against segregation. While in Selma on March 9, Reeb was attacked and beaten by a white mob armed with clubs. He suffered massive head injuries, and died in a Birmingham hospital two days later. His death resulted in a national outcry against the activities of white racists in the Deep South.[2]
Given the many lynchings of blacks in the 20th century, and other violence against activists, some blacks expressed indignation that it took the death of a white man to incite the national outcry against southern violence. When Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot dead by police in Marion, Alabama two weeks earlier while protecting his mother from a beating, his case attracted less national attention.
President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the events in Selma "an American tragedy." He said they should strengthen people's determination "to bring full and equal and exact justice to all of our people." Johnson's voting-rights proposal reached Congress the Monday after Reeb's death and was passed by both houses of Congress.