wfn.org | Film details Black churches' role in civil-rights movement

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #7046 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

5-February-2002
02057

Film details Black churches' role in civil-rights movement

Feb. 17 program on Hallmark Channel is Black History Month event

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - A new documentary on the role African-American churches played in the civil rights movement will be broadcast on Feb. 17 on the Hallmark Channel.

The program - "We Shall Not Be Moved" - was produced by Faith & Values Media in cooperation with the North American Missions Board (NAMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention. The broadcast is part of the Hallmark Channel's observation of Black History Month.

Beginning with the founding of the First African Baptist Church of Savannah - "built in the dark of night by slaves" in 1773 - the film depicts the evolution of Southern churches as a central part of the struggle for racial equality.

"We Shall Not Be Moved sheds new light on the role the religious community played in bringing about social revolution," said NAMB Vice President David Clark. "It is an inspiring account of how powerful and important religion is in bringing people together for positive change."

 From the Montgomery bus boycott to the Selma voting-rights march, the program depicts how Black churches served as a spiritual, intellectual, political and logistical foundation for the movement. Among those featured are Mary Jo Smiley, who describes Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat on a bus as "one of the most powerful single protests the world has ever seen," and the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, a former pastor of Birmingham's Bethel Baptist Church, who inspired his colleagues and congregation by declaring, "If we die, then our lives will be one installment on the pavement of freedom." 

Edward Murray, president and chief executive officer of Faith & Values Media, said: "We wanted to highlight how congregations from various denominations worked as a vital religious community to mobilize the civil-rights movement."

Faith & Values Media is a service of the National Interfaith Cable Coalition, (NICC), whose 30 institutional members, among them the PC(USA), represent 70 faith groups with about 200,000 congregations and 120 million members.
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