More poignantly, Gray received letters from two Mississippians who thanked him for his willingness to speak out, but confessed their own lack of courage to do so. A businessman in Natchez wrote simply, “I wanted to speak out, but I was afraid.” A man in Starkville wrote, “I still cannot speak as I should. I […]

Gray ended his sermon by telling the story of Robert E. Lee in his parish church after the Civil War: When, during a celebration of the Eucharist, a black man made his way to the altar rail, the congregation hung back and left the man at the rail alone. Lee rose, walked to the rail, […]

Gray had already talked with a Cleveland print shop about reprinting the statement as a six-by-three-and-a-half inch pamphlet and had gotten price estimates. When he returned to the printer with “The Church Considers the Supreme Court Decision,” however, the owner of the shop very nearly changed his mind. “He was furious,” Gray recalls. “He said […]