The White church—that had blessed slavery, segregation, and apartheid in South Africa—was silent.

The Klan, embraced by and often made up of the White gentry of the South, often gathered at their churches to organize the public lynchings.

White authorities, White churches, and White society turned its head and sometimes applauded in approval.

This reality is sustained by the silence of White elites, the silence of the White church, the silence of the evangelicals, and the silence of the best-intentioned citizens.

He suggested that the “great stumbling block” for African Americans seeking their freedom was not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the White moderate “who is more devoted to order than to justice.”