Book Review: “Shaking the Gates of Hell” Boldly Tackles the Issue of Race
 |
| Author John Archibald tackles the issue of race in his memoir "Shaking the Gates of Hell." |
By Roy L. Williams |Public Relations Director, Birmingham Public Library
As a Black man, I am still angry when I see broadcasted images of a Minneapolis cop’s knee on George Floyd’s neck, the killing last May that led to riots and civil unrest around this country. There is still a segment of Americans who are silent surrounding his death.
In his new family memoir, “Shaking the Gates of Hell: A Search for Family and Truth in the Wake of the Civil Rights Movement,” Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist John Archibald tackles the controversial topic of white silence during the historical time of racial protests 50 years ago in the Deep South.
What sets Archibald’s book apart and makes his perspective unique is the main character: his father, Rev. Robert Archibald, a white Methodist pastor. Archibald questions his Christian and loving father’s choice of not using his pulpit to speak out against the violence blacks endured during the 1960s, which includes bombing by KKK members that killed four black girls at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.
The book’s title, “Shaking the Gates of Hell,” is a quote from John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church, which says, “Give me 100 preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God; … such alone will shake the gates of hell.”
The first chapter starts with the letter in the Birmingham News from eight white clergy members, Christians and Jews, written in April 1963- a week after Archibald’s birth –which they asked that civil rights demonstrations stop in the name of law and order and “common sense.”
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s responded to that letter by hosting a protest march in Birmingham. Birmingham Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor had King arrested. While in jail King wrote to the eight preachers, in what many view as the most powerful document written during the civil rights era which is referred to as “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
Archibald didn’t read King’s letter until 1986 when he landed his first newspaper job at The Birmingham News and wanted to learn more about the city’s tension filled past.
King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” is woven throughout Archibald’s book and resonated with him since his father is from a long line of family preachers.
Archibald writes, “It was a message to cautious and careful white people, like those eight clergy members … Like the members of my family, who thought they understood. It was to people just like mine, who tried to live like Jesus but turned the other cheek only to look away.”
Archibald began to explore why white preachers were silent after his father’s death in 2013, when he found a file cabinet filled with his dad’s sermons. Readers of “Shaking the Gates of Hell” join Archibald as he goes through a journey of self-discovery.
As Archibald read his father’s sermons, his disappointment at the silence of his father and other white preachers haunts him as he recalls King’s words from the letter, “I came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice of our cause and with deep moral concern, would serve as the channel through which our just grievances could reach the power structure.”
Chapter 5, called “Silence and Dynamite,” is one of the most chilling parts of the book- and offers Archibald’s best explanation of why preachers shunned race from the pulpit. Silence came from some fear of the Ku Klux Klan, which Archibald says “terrorized those who would say the slightest word against racism and segregation.”
Halfway through the memoir, in a chapter called “Remember Who You Are,” Archibald explores one of his father’s favorite phrases, urging his children to behave well while out in public because their actions reflect on the family name.
Archibald goes a journey to learn more about his family tree- and discovers several members of his family had owned slaves. He felt shame, writing, “People like my ancestors left plenty of lessons to learn. But not just from the pulpit.”
Although most of the book centers around his father’s sermons, Archibald’s memoir includes engaging family moments that entailed what growing up in the South was like– family trips to a Methodist campground in the Georgia mountains, where he and his father loved to fish together; and fun, playful moments with his siblings.
As he learns more about why his father was scared to speak out against racism, Archibald comes to some understanding and acceptance.
“Dad couldn’t preach about integration, about the ‘race question,’ because of us, because of me, because of his family. Because he would be branded a rabble-rouser and barred from the bigger, better, more prestigious and more lucrative appointments.”
Archibald writes, “I am forgiving of my father. At least he saw all his neighbors, and helped them as he could. I am less forgiving of the church – the lax, hesitant, halting church, which damns the sinner and damns itself with its own fear and social neglect.”
He slams the United Methodist Church of 2019 for its stance that continues today against homosexuals. It’s a topic near and dear to Archibald, who reveals in the book that his brother is gay.
“Oh the church is quick to say gay people have worth and encourages members not to reject gay friends and family, but demands that no church money be spent on any gay group or for the purpose of promoting the acceptance of homosexuality.”
As for the question Archibald explores throughout his memoir - whether a person who remains silent in the face of injustice can still be a good person - the answer is a resounding yes.
Archibald recalls a conversation he had with his father shortly before he died, in which his father beamed with pride that Archibald was bold enough to tackle the issue of race in his columns, a topic his father was too fearful to preach about.
“I’m proud of you son, for taking on the race question,” Rev. Archibald said.
BPL Archives Department Head Jim Baggett will talk live with John Archibald about his new book on the Birmingham Public Library Facebook page (18) Birmingham Public Library | Facebook
A journalist and columnist at The Birmingham News and AL.com since 1986, Archibald was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. For details, click here https://bplolinenews.blogspot.com/2021/03/bpl-hosting-march-17-talk-with-pulitzer.html
Comments