by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News Service
The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BCRI) bestowed on the
Rev. Joseph W. Ellwanger, Milwaukee, the Fred L. Shuttlesworth
Human Rights Award during the institute's 16th anniversary
dinner on Nov. 14. Ellwanger, a retired pastor of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), was cited for
"his outstanding legacy as a civil rights advocate," according
to a BCRI news release.
"Ellwanger was one of the few white Southern ministers who
supported the American Civil Rights Movement. He helped plan
the Birmingham demonstrations in 1963. When the Sixteenth
Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was bombed, Ellwanger was
leading a service in his church a mile away," the release said.
As president of the Birmingham Council on Human Relations in
1965, Ellwanger organized marches in Selma, Ala., to support
voting rights. At the end of the Selma-to-Montgomery March,
the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. chose Ellwanger to be among
15 ministers who met with Gov. George Wallace. Ellwanger was
also part of a delegation of clergy to meet with U.S. President
Lyndon Johnson about the necessity of the Voting Rights Act.
Ellwanger works as an expansion and campaign organizer for
WISDOM, a network of nine congregation-based organizing groups
that work for social justice in Wisconsin. He retired in 2001
after serving 34 years as pastor of Cross Lutheran Church,
Milwaukee.
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About the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:
The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with 2.8 million members in more than 8,500 worshiping communities across the 50 states and in the Caribbean region. Known as the church of "God's work. Our hands.," the ELCA emphasizes the saving grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, unity among Christians and service in the world. The ELCA's roots are in the writings of the German church reformer Martin Luther.
For information contact:
Candice Hill Buchbinder
Public Relations Manager
Candice.HillBuchbinder@ELCA.org
