St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1956-03-09


beginning of time where 81
gOmery story began"
With those words setting the
tone Of his address before an en-
thusiastic crowd in Columbus
l.OOO-seat Union Grove Baptist
church Sunday afternoon, Rev.
Robert S. Graetz, 27-year old
white minister Of Montgomery's
all-Negro Trinity Lutheran
church, unfolded in calm. graphic
details the Montgomery Story"
OF passive resistance against the
verbal and physical abuses which
have resulted in boycotting that
city's buses and the arrest Of
more than 100 Negro leaders.
Admonishing his listeners, who
time after time were stirred to
an almost unanimous chorus of
"halleluiahs" and "amens" by the
youthful minister's address, to
bear in mind that, I'VE in Mont
gomery are not just fighting for
$4,000 Negroes; we are fighting
for IS million people" Rev Graetz
declared:
There is no hate In our
hearts against those opposed TO
us; we love our enemies as God
would have us love them"
We have got 10 keep this
thing non-violent or everything
we are fighting for will collapse,
he stated.
Rev. Graetz, a June, 1855 grad
uate of the Lutheran seminary at
Capital university in Columbus,
urged his audience not TO refer to
the Montgomery as a boycott, but
a protest only our enemies
call it a boycott"
The accepted version Of the pro-
test has been that Montgomery's
Negroes refusal to ride the city
buses began with the arrest and
timing last Dec. Of Mrs. Rosa
Parks. highly respected Negro
seamstress who refused TO yield
her seat in the Jim Crow area Of
the bus to a white passenger.
theoretically, Rev. Graetz
pointed out, that version is true,
but more important, he continued,
is the fact that a series of indig-
mites" against Negroes in the
Alabama city exploded in the
Parks incident.
Among these. according to Rev
Graetz, were:
Herdlng Of Negroes TO the
back Of the coaches no matter
how many empty seats were
available in the front, or white"
sections.
Leaving Negro passengers
standing In the street because
drivers had to make up time"
A recent incident during
which n bus driver kicked a wo-
man In the face.
can assault by a bus driver
on a Negro woman passenger
whose back was broken In the
nehee.
. Numerous arrests Of Ne
groes by Montgomery cops be-
cause they refused to move to
the back Of buses.
Shooting down by police OF
man involved In n dispute with n
bus driver.
In the Rosa Parks affair, the
boyiSh appearing minister main
tanned, Mrs. Parks, upon entering
the bus went directly to the
"colored' section, but after the
whites had filled up the front Of
the vehicle, the driver began ask
ing Negroes to get up and give
their seats to white passengers.
Mrs. Parks. who informed Rev.
Graetz that Il was just too tired
to move" refused to give up her
seat. Her arrest followed and she
was fined S14
Mrs. Parks was arrested on a
week end, the Montgomery pastor
declared. and the city was almost
Immediately flooded with rumors
that the Negroes were going to
boycott the buses the following
Monday morning"
The Montgomery Advertiser,
he continued. inadvertently got
the protest movement underway
when IL city editor picked up
the rumor and In its sunday edi-
ton ran a banner headline,
Montgomery Negroes to Boy
colt Buses Monday Morning"
That did IT," Rev. Graetz told
the overflow audience. We still
don't know who started the report
originally. But by Monday morn
ing the Negroes just sat there and
watched the buses 60 by, as one
Of them put II as naked as
they cosld be
BY this time, Rev. Graetz relat-
ed. it was obvious that II some
Of US didn't get this thing organ
lied, il was going to get complete
~ out Of hand and actual violence
Continued on page 81