Faith, Race, and the Lost Cause: Confessions of a Southern Church

Chris Graham's first book is a well-written and researched account. He looks at the history of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, from its beginnings in the 1840s to the present day. For a long time, the church was known for being where Confederates Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis worshiped during the Civil War. It was where President Davis was when he first heard of Lee having to evacuate Petersburg in April 1865. Not surprisingly, then, the church became a temple for the Lost Cause and its defense of white supremacy. Along with the rest of the South, things began to change in the 1970s, though the church has struggled to erase its Confederate history since then. The Black Lives Matter movement spurred St. Paul's--and Richmond as a whole--to redouble its efforts to become more equitable. This illuminating book is part of the attempt by St. Paul's to reckon with its troubled past.