The African American Civil Rights Movement and Archbishop Iakovos of North and South America

Abstract

When Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marched from the Brown Chapel of the African Methodist Episcopal Church to the Dallas County Courthouse in Selma, Alabama on March 15, 1965, Archbishop Iakovos, leader of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America, was among the few white men who accompanied him. Iakovos, who had experienced religious oppression himself as a child, accepted Dr. King’s invitation demonstrating his commitment to freedom and civil rights as key principles of the American life. Iakovos stated that the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese could no longer remain a “spectator and listener,” and it must labor and struggle to develop its spiritual life. In the end, his firm support of Dr. King’s initiative helped bring to fruition the passage of voting rights legislation, advancing equality among his communicants. This paper examines the leadership role of Iakovos in his support of the African American Civil Rights Movement and, furthermore, assesses the impact of his activism on the Greek Orthodox community in America with regard to the previously introverted and conservative attitudes.|Keywords: Martin Luther King Jr., Archbishop Iakovos, African American civil rights movement, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, interracial relations