Conditions Governing Use

Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.

Conditions Governing Access

No special access restriction applies.

Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], News Articles regarding Civil Rights Activist Reverend Robert S. Graetz and Jeannie Ellis Graetz, A&M 4502, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Scope and Contents

This collection includes three news articles regarding the passing of Rev. Robert S. Graetz (1928-2020) and Jeannie Ellis Graetz (1929-2020). Rev. Graetz (born in Clarksburg, WV) was the minister of the Trinity Lutheran Evangelical Church, the only white clergyman in Montgomery, Alabama to pastor a majority-Black church in the 1950s. He and his wife, Jeannie Ellis Graetz, were members of the Montgomery Improvement Association and were actively involved in their community. Rev. Gaetz notably drove congregation and other community members to and from work during the Montgomery bus boycotts in . The Graetz family home was bombed twice by the KKK in the summer of 1956 and in January 1957.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Civil rights -- United States -- History
• Montgomery Bus Boycott, Montgomery, Ala., 1955-1956