Rural and small-town clergy, lay leaders, and community leaders engaged in struggles for social justice are, at best, an under-resourced minority in progressive church work and social movements and, at worst, lumped into harmful and reductionistic stereotypes of rural people. Looking at the early and mid-20th century, however, reveals generations of multi-racial Southern clergy and social change leaders whose commitments to social change in rural and small towns were very much alive, representative of (or at least in deep conversation with) progressive theologies of the era, and grounded in strategies that sought material and spiritual transformation for everyday people. Today, the prevailing narratives about rural people reads like this: “white, poorly educated, theologically conservative people who vote against their self-interests.” On one hand, this and similar prevailing assumptions risk erasing the black, brown, indigenous, and progressive working-class/cash poor white people of faith and spirit that constitute a far greater percentage of rural/small-town populations than commonly talked about, thereby muting the progressive histories, contemporary stories, and theologies of the Christian communities (and other faith/spiritual traditions) that sustain them. On another hand, for where the stereotypical narratives are true, it begs a question of how that came to be, especially if the progressive church once had footholds (even if small ones) in those contexts. For both scenarios, this study intends to interrogate whether concepts like "rural-urban divide" and "Trump Country" have roots in the progressive church's choices. In the process, I hope to help the progressive Church re-member its rural past and present. Through an historical analysis of choices made by denominational and social movement leadership, my research seeks to uncover and synthesize stories that offer nuanced, thoughtful, and faithful prophetic and pastoral interventions for the 21st century.