Bushel Basket Publishing

In My Father’s House: Lessons Learned in the Home of a Civil Rights Pioneer recounts the activities of Norman Shands, a white Southern Baptist pastor, who worked with civic and religious leaders of both races to effect the peaceful desegregation of the Atlanta public school system. Shands believed that Christians have a moral responsibility to promote social justice for all people. This effort met with resistance on many fronts – the white community, Southern Baptist leadership in Georgia, and the church he served.

The courageous actions of Shands and two other ministers at the 1956 Georgia Baptist Convention spawned a dialog between white and black ministers, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr. and Rabbi Jacob Rothschild. That dialog helped Atlanta earn the moniker “the city too busy to hate”.

The story is told by Shands’ son, Bob, who was formulating his own views between the ages of 4 and 14 during the decade the family lived in Atlanta (1953 – 1963). Bob was challenged to reconcile the conflicting positions of his father, leaders of his home church, and the larger Atlanta community.

The book begins with a historical narrative and paints a picture of life in Atlanta in the 1950s. It transitions into the ethical lessons Bob learned as a child growing up in the Jim Crow South and the processes involved in that learning. The book ends with his personal views on race relations in the first decade of the twenty-first century.

The story of the white contribution in Atlanta’s racial struggle remains largely untold. In My Father’s House provides an insight into that contribution as demonstrated by the historic Atlanta Ministers’ Manifesto of 1957 and OASIS (Organizations Assisting Schools in September) during the “Open Schools Movement” of 1960 – 61.