THE LIFE & DEATH
OF
ROBERT SPIKE
WHO KILLED HIM & WHY?
“We will always remember Bob Spike’s unswerving devotion to the legitimate aspirations of oppressed people for freedom and human dignity. It was my pleasure and sacred privilege to work closely with him.”
— Dr Martin Luther King Jr
BRIEFING
Rag Radio 2017-01-13:
Paul Spike, Author of 'Photographs of My Father' & Bobby Byrd of Cinco Puntos Press
Thorne Dreyer’s guests on Rag Radio are author Paul Spike and publisher Bobby Byrd. London-based writer Paul Spike is the author of five books, including Photographs of My Father: A Lost Narrative from the Civil Rights Era about his father, murdered civil rights worker Robert Spike. Photographs of My Father, written when Paul Spike was 23 years old, was named one of the best books of the year in 1973 by The New York Times.
BBC World Service:
My Dad - The Unsung Civil Rights Hero
Paul Spike had a ringside seat on one of the most tumultuous periods in American history - the civil rights movement. That's because his father, Reverend Robert Spike, was a prominent figure in the campaign during the 1960s, supporting figures like Martin Luther King in the fight for racial equality. Reverend Spike was a white Baptist pastor who forged a new way for churches in the US to confront prejudice, but he was murdered in mysterious circumstances nearly 60 years ago. His killers have never been found.
The NYPR Archive Collections:
Civil Rights - Dr. Robert Spike, August 5, 1964
Dr. Robert Spike, Executive Director of the National Council of Churches' Commission on Religion and Race, discusses the Civil Rights training school in Oxford, Ohio (the same that Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner attended) and their work in Mississippi.
Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection.
