Rev. James Reeb

In 1965, the Rev. James Reeb was a member of the Unitarian Arlington Street Church in Boston who often set out for suburban towns to broaden his ministry. A resident of Half Moon Street near Uphams Corner in Dorchester, where he and his wife were raising their four children, Rev. Reeb was well known for using his ministry to push the cause of racial justice, and the fight for civil rights that was a mark of the time made it almost imperative for him to join what he and so many others saw as a march for freedom.

After watching the news of the bloody and brutal events in Selma, Alabama, on Sun., March 7, 1965 and hearing Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s call for support, Rev. Reeb flew to Selma with some 100 other ministers from Massachusetts and joined in the plans to attempt another march on Tuesday, which was also turned back by Selma police.

That evening, as the civil rights marchers talked about trying again on Thursday, Rev. Reeb and two other ministers were attacked as they walked down a local street. One of the assailants smashed the side of Rev. Reeb’s head with a large stick, a fatal blow as this martyr of the civil rights movement died two days later.

Dr. King delivered the eulogy for Rev. Reeb in Brown Chapel in Selma in March 17, 1965, saying, in part:

“So in his death, James Reeb says something to each of us, black and white alike, He says that we must substitute courage for caution. He says to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered him, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murder. His death says to us that we must work passionately, unrelentingly to make the American dream a reality so that he did not die in vain.”

– REPORTER STAFF