The Christian Way in Race Relations edited by William Stuart Nelson, published in 1948
The Christian Way in Race Relations is a collection of essays that addressed race relations during the middle of the 20th century. Edited by William Stuart Nelson in 1948, this volume encouraged those of the Christian faith to foster equality and dignity across community lines. Nelson, an internationally known advocate of nonviolence, had joined Gandhi in his efforts in the reconciliation between the Hindu and Muslim communities in India. Nelson was active throughout the Civil Rights Movement in America and participated in the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965.
The son of an African American physician, Nelson was deeply aware of the disparities of physical health, mental wellbeing, and financial stability denied to many African Americans across the nation during this period of American history. In his essay, Critical Issues in America’s Race Relations Today, Nelson neither softened nor hid the reality of the inequality experienced by people of color during the mid-20th century. He bluntly listed many of the injustices experienced by African Americans in their daily lives.
The page exhibited from Nelson’s essay presents the distinct medical inequality experienced both by African American physicians and the people they sought to serve.
