At the River is an oral history project designed to collect personal stories of white, Southern Presbyterian ministers who took a stand during the Civil Rights era.

This history is not generally known and the ministers have remained quiet about those times in humility, and because they felt that they were not at the same risk as African Americans in their towns and cities.

Their actions in support of welcoming blacks to their congregations took courage, and often resulted in the loss of their ministries.  There were threats to their children, loss of church housing, loss of pulpits, and the loneliness and pressure of going up against their culture and the prevalent religious beliefs of the deep South.

These ministers, 25 to 35 years of age during the Civil Rights era, put themselves and their families at risk because they believed that  the stand they were taking was in accordance with “the Gospel.”