Robert Graetz


Robert S. Graetz is a Lutheran clergyman who, as the white pastor of a black congregation in Montgomery, Alabama, openly supported the Montgomery bus boycott, a landmark event of the civil rights movement.

Role in civil rights movement

Graetz's first full-time job as pastor was to a black congregation, Trinity Lutheran Church, in Montgomery. He began working there in 1955, the year of the Montgomery bus boycott. A personal friend of Rosa Parks, Graetz became secretary of the Montgomery Improvement Association, the organization founded to organize and support the boycott. Graetz's support of the movement included appearing at meetings led by Martin Luther King Jr.
For his support of the boycott, Graetz and his family were ostracized by other whites and suffered several episodes of harassment, including tire slashings, arrest, and bombings. Bombs were planted at his home on three occasions; the largest did not explode.
Graetz wrote A White Preacher's Memoir: The Montgomery Bus Boycott about his experiences. The book They Walked to Freedom 1955-1956: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Kenneth M. Hare contains a first-person account of his experiences as well as photographs of Graetz with King and others.

Biographical details

Graetz, of German descent, was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia, and educated in Columbus, Ohio. He graduated from Capital University in Bexley, Ohio in 1950, and received a B.D. in 1955 from Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. He married Jean Ellis on June 10, 1951, in East Springfield, Pennsylvania. They had seven children together.
In 2008, the Graetzes returned to Montgomery, Alabama, where they are actively involved in various civic activities including the diversity group One Montgomery and the League of Women Voters. Each year they host the annual Graetz Symposium at the National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African-American Culture at Alabama State University.

Career