Called to the Fire

This is the true story of Dr. Charles Johnson, an African American
preacher who went to Mississippi in 1961 during the summer of the
Freedom Rides. Fresh out of Bible School Johnson hesitantly followed his
call to pastor in Mississippi, a hotbed for race relations during the
early 1960’s. Unwittingly thrust into the heart of a national tragedy,
the murder of three Civil Rights activists, he overcame fear and
adversity to become a leader in the Civil Rights movement.


As a key African American witness to take the stand in the trial
famously dubbed the “Mississippi Burning” case by the FBI, Charles
Johnson played a key role for the Federal Justice Department, offering
clarity to the event that led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This
story of love, conviction, adversity, and redemption climaxes with a
shocking encounter between Charles and one of the murderers. The reader
will be riveted to the details of a gracious life in pursuit of the call
of God from the pulpit to the streets, and ultimately into the
courtroom.