Rev. Robert Graetz is a Lutheran minister who came to Montgomery, Alabama, along with his wife Jeanie and their children in 1955 as a white minister to an all-black congregation. He could not have known what he was walking into. During his stay in Montgomery, Graetz was the only white minister to openly support the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The Graetz’s home, the parsonage behind their church, was bombed three times, once with the family at home. (Once, the bomb did not detonate.) After literally risking his life to do what he still today sees as God’s work, the Graetz moved on in 1958 when the Lutheran church reassigned Reverend Graetz.

On March 7, 2005 – the 40th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the day the Selma-to-Montgomery March was beaten back – Rev. Graetz, Mrs. Graetz, their son, and a bus load of students that they were conducting on an educational tour all came to BTW’s campus, where they convened in the media center to discuss the Graetz’s life and their work.