Episode 158: The complicated legacy of Marshall Keeble (Dr. Edward Robinson)

Marshall Keeble (1878 - 1968) may be the most accomplished and influential Church of Christ preacher of all time. For decades, he preached all over the world, baptizing as many as 40,000 and planting hundreds of Church of Christ congregations. Today, hundreds of Church of Christ elders and ministers trace their own Christian ancestry back to Keeble.

What makes this story even more remarkable is that Keeble did most of his work in the Jim Crow South, where legal and social norms limited what he could do and say. Sometimes, Keeble preached at the risk of his own life.

Marshall Keeble is one of the greatest preachers of all time, but like all great preachers, his legacy is more complicated than it seems at first look.

Dr. Edward Robinson, a "spiritual grandson" of Keeble, is author of Show Us How You Do It: Marshall Keeble and the Rise of Black Churches of Christ in the United States 1914 - 1968. In this episode, Robinson explores the harder questions about Keeble's ministry and what the present-day Church of Christ has to learn from one of its all-time greats.

Link to Bobby Ross's Christian Chronicle story on the new Marshall Keeble exhibit that opened in 2026 at Jackson Street Church of Christ in Nashville, Tennessee

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