Interracialism and Christian Community in the Postwar South

Now available in paperback, Tracy K'Meyer's book is a thoughtful and engaging portrait of Koinonia Farm, an interracial Christian cooperative founded in 1942 by two white Baptist ministers in southwest Georgia. The farm was begun as an expression of radical southern Protestantism, and its interracial nature made it a beacon to early civil rights activists, who rallied to its defense and helped it survive attacks from the Ku Klux Klan and others. Based on over fifty interviews with current and former Koinonia members, K'Meyer's book provides a history of the farm during its period of greatest influence. K'Meyer outlines the conceptual flaws that have troubled the community, but finds that Koinonia's enduring effect as a social movement--including Millard Fuller's founding of Habitat for Humanity, prompted by a 1965 visit to the farm--is far more meaningful than its internal conflicts. For anyone in search of a hardy strain of Christian progressivism in the Bible Belt, reading K'Meyer's book is an inspiring and intellectually fulfilling experience in its own right.