Robert Sylvester Graetz, Jr. (1928-2020) was best known as a participant and leader in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. A member of the Lutheran clergy, he was the only white clergy member in Montgomery to participate in this landmark event.

Upon his graduation from seminary, the Lutheran Church asked Graetz to take a post in a primarily African American church because of a shortage of black Lutheran ministers in the southeast. In June 1955, he joined Trinity Lutheran Evangelical Church in Montgomery, Montgomery County, as their pastor, though he frequently preached at churches in nearby Wetumpka, Elmore County, and Clanton, Chilton County.
During his tenure in Montgomery, Graetz was an active participant and leader in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which began in December 1955. Graetz used his position as pastor to ask his congregants to support the boycott and not ride on Montgomery's public transportation. As a member and leader in the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), which supported the boycott, he helped transport people from home to work in the mornings, organized carpools, and raised money to pay for the gas and other car expenses for other drivers who were participating in the carpools. In particular, Graetz wrote other white clergy members in Montgomery to ask that they also publicly support the boycott and to speak with Martin Luther King Jr. about supporting the boycott. But the association representing the white clergy in Montgomery refused to speak with King.

In 1958, Graetz and his family returned to Columbus, Ohio, where he served as a minister at the primarily African American St. Philips Lutheran Church until 1967. He then moved to Washington, D.C., where he served as a minister for Lutheran Mission 373, an experimental community ministry, and continued as an activist and lobbyist for marginalized peoples. In 1970, the Graetz family returned once again to Columbus, Ohio, so Graetz could take a position on the Ohio Council of Churches, a position he occupied until 1983. That year, Graetz became a part-time minister at St. John Lutheran in Logan, Ohio. On October 31, 1995, Robert Graetz retired from full-time ministry, though he continued to hold various interim ministerial positions in Ohio.
In 2007, Robert and Jeanne Graetz returned to Montgomery and became involved with the diversity group One Montgomery as well as the League of Women Voters, participating in their various civic functions. The Graetz family hosted the annual Graetz Symposium at Alabama State University's National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African American Culture as part of their continued commitment to civil rights and racial justice.

Graetz published several books and articles throughout his lifetime. In 1964, he published A Congregational Guide to Human Relations as well as "An Informed Church Serves a Diverse Society," a chapter in L. W. Halverson's The Church in a Diverse Society. Between 1973 and 1987, Graetz was also a monthly columnist for the Catholic Times, a publication of the Diocese of Columbus, Ohio. In 1991, he published Montgomery: A White Preacher's Memoir, which was about his experiences during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This work was republished in 1999 as A White Preacher's Memoir: The Montgomery Bus Boycott. His final publication in 2006 was A White Preacher's Message on Race and Reconciliation. Graetz died in his Montgomery home on September 20, 2020. He had been receiving hospice care for Parkinson's disease.
Additional Resources
Graetz, Robert. A White Preacher's Memoir: The Montgomery Bus Boycott. Montgomery, Ala.: Black Belt Press, 1999.
Additional Resources
Graetz, Robert. A White Preacher's Memoir: The Montgomery Bus Boycott. Montgomery, Ala.: Black Belt Press, 1999.
———. A White Preacher's Message on Race And Reconciliation: Based on His Experiences Beginning With the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Montgomery, Ala.: New South Books, 2006.