No Turning Back: My Summer With Daddy King [Hardcover]

Gurdon Brewster (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2007

A fine reinterpretation of atonement theory from a liberationist perspective.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the summer of 1961, Brewster, a white seminary student from the North, worked at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where both Martin Luther King Sr. and Jr. were pastors. In this moving memoir, he recalls his first encounters with Atlanta's segregated restrooms, restaurants and public swimming pools, and describes finding the spontaneous church services of the black Baptist tradition both unnerving and energizing. When local white ministers didn't embrace Brewster's idea of setting up meetings between black and white church youth groups, Brewster's eyes were opened about the intransigent racism of ostensibly moderate white clergy. (Less dramatically, Brewster also learned about that staple of Southern cuisine, grits, during his Atlanta summer.) Brewster's book is valuable not only for the record of his own awakenings, but for the personal anecdotes about King Sr., who emerges as a passionate, wise man with a sense of humor equal to his sense of justice. Though Brewster is not attempting to analyze the Civil Rights movement, he does offer useful insights about the importance of hymnody in black churches' freedom struggle. The prose is uneven; often, Brewster's descriptions are vivid and energetic, but occasionally he lapses into didactic clichés (I was shaken. This experience would change my life.). On the whole, however, this memoir is engaging and inspiring. (Oct.)
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Review

In the summer of 1961, Gurdon Brewster, a white seminary student from the North, worked at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where both Martin Luther King Sr. and Jr. were pastors. . . Brewster s book is valuable not only for the record of his own awakenings, but for the personal anecdotes about King Sr., who emerges as a passionate, wise man with a sense of humor equal to his sense of justice. . . This memoir is engaging and inspiring. --Publisher s Weekly

Brewster s fascinating story of his own journey into a profound and sometimes troubling new understanding of his nation, his life and his calling provides a powerful, encouraging message for all of us who are committed to the creation of a more just, compassionate, and multi-racial America. --Vincent Harding, author of Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 233 pages
• Publisher: Orbis Books (October 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570757283
• ISBN-13: 978-1570757280
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #853,238 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting, Charming, Unusual, November 19, 2007

By 

S. Cerquone - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: No Turning Back: My Summer With Daddy King (Hardcover)

I'll admit to my bias: Rev. Brewster is the pastor of the Episcopal church I currently attend. He's a lovely, humble man, who for many years didn't talk much about his experiences with Daddy and Dr. King. We, his parishioners, only knew tidbits of his summer in Atlanta in '61. Needless to say, after reading this book, it is with both surprise and awe when I say how his story is both profoundly moving and important to read. We know so much about MLK Jr. but here is where you read about Daddy King's life, and his own struggle with civil rights as a sharecropper's son. You also learn of the wonderful people who surround the Kings at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No Turning Back: My Summer with Daddy King, March 17, 2008

By 

Ronald C. Wootengreen (Las Vegas, NM) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: No Turning Back: My Summer With Daddy King (Hardcover)

While I agree with the reviewer who wishes for more of the author's emotional experience in his account, this is an engaging read, a page-turner. On the other hand at times he is refreshingly frank, honest, and revealing of just how innocent and naive he was as a bright-eyed and bushey-tailed seminarian.

There are moments when one wonders how Brewster ever lived to tell this tale. It is a total wonder that this young white outsider wasn't killed by bigoted Red Necks in the Atlanta area. It could have happened at the roadside gas & grocery, or at the community pool, or at a church parking lot one evening. In all three instances it was but for the grace of God that Gurdon Brewster made it through the Summer of 1961.

The world is a better place because people such as Reverend Brewster are in it!

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Spotty Disappointment, December 7, 2007

By 

Lawrence R. Holben (Mt. Shata, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: No Turning Back: My Summer With Daddy King (Hardcover)

Given the subject matter, one hopes for more in the way of insight and emotion than this well-meaning book ultimately delivers. It has its moments, to be sure, moments that move one to tears. And Daddy King does come across as a powerful spiritual figure. But the author's limitations as a writer seriously compromise the ultimate effectiveness of the book, which seems to have enough real content for a good long article. In the end one admires Daddy King and Mrs. King, one has a certain affectionate respect for the author, but one (at least this one) leaves unsatisfied. The author was not well-served by his apparently over-indulgent editor(s).