Books, movies and records that seem to challenge racism also subtly advance the idea that progress shouldn’t happen too quickly.
John Lewis linked arms with religious leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King, while marching from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.
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From the earliest days of the civil rights struggle, Black religious leaders have infused the fight for justice with spirituality. Rep. Lewis and Rev. Vivian are no exception.
Demonstrators march in the Black Mamas March to protest police brutality, June 27, 2020 in Washington, D.C.
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Some lament that today’s anti-racism movement has no charismatic leaders like the civil rights era did. Such comparisons don’t reflect the real history of the struggle for Black equality in the US.
A group of sharecroppers, evicted from their land in the Great Depression, stand beside a Missouri road in January 1939.
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In many national crises, black Americans have been essential workers – but serving in crucial roles has not resulted in economic equality.
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II speaks outside of the St. John’s Episcopal Church Lafayette Square on June 14, 2020.
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Protests over police violence and white supremacy have erupted in almost 600 US cities. A historian of black social movements says what’s happened after George Floyd’s death is unprecedented.
A protester holds a sign showing a black US flag during a demonstration in Denver, Colorado, on May 31, 2020.
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That George Floyd died at the hands of four police officers is uncontested, but interpretations of his death and its aftermath differ greatly. The result is two starkly opposed narratives.
Mourning in Minneapolis: Terrence Floyd at a vigil for his brother George Floyd on the spot where he died in police custody.
Tannen Maury/EPA
Understanding how unrest informed both early Christianity and the foundational stories of the United States can serve as a guide in this current period of turmoil.
A protester raises a fist in New York’s Washington Square Park during a June 2, 2020 demonstration.
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African Americans have long taken to the streets to protest against racial injustice. While some progress has been made, police violence remains an ever-present reality.
A man carries an eagle feather as police prepare to enforce an injunction against protesters who were blocking a road used to access to the Port of Vancouver during a demonstration in support of Wet'suwet'en Nation hereditary chiefs on Feb. 25, 2020.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
In a sermon two weeks after MLK’s funeral, civil rights leader, Wyatt Tee Walker, urged young seminarians to be hopeful and take action for making change happen. His sermon has valuable lessons today.
Volunteers in Iowa ahead of the Iowa caucus listening to a speaker on Jan. 25, 2020.
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Schools and colleges can teach political hope that can help citizens make better choices.
Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the Freedom March on Washington in 1963.
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Many historians and other scholars say what Americans have traditionally learned about the complex period that followed the Civil War falls short of what we should know.
School children in India celebrate Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary.
AP Photo/Altaf Qadri
Although Gandhi is best known for expelling the British from India and inspiring the likes of King and Mandela, he also wrote a lot about the behavior of good business leaders.
On paper, lives were lived, trysts arranged, manifestos mailed and wars waged.
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Managing Director of the McCourtney Institute of Democracy, Associate Research Professor, Political Science, Co-host of Democracy Works Podcast, Penn State