Bayard Rustin led a long and complicated life dedicated to the fight for equal rights. Targeted by the FBI, Rustin became a close adviser to Martin Luther King Jr.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. relaxes at home in May 1956 in Montgomery, Alabama.
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As Martin Luther King Jr. gained national prominence, the FBI launched several investigations to prove that King and his radical allies were communist sympathizers and a danger to America.
People wait in line for a free morning meal in Los Angeles in April 2020. High and rising inequality is one reason the U.S. ranks badly on some international measures of development.
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The United States came in 41st worldwide on the UN’s 2022 sustainable development index, down nine spots from last year. A political historian explains the country’s dismal scores.
The world has seen widespread climate protests in recent years.
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Global climate movements have espoused nonviolence, but some are adopting more radical tactics in light of the increasing threats posed by climate change.
Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., left, and attorney Fred Gray, whom King called ‘the brilliant young Negro who later became the chief counsel for the protest movement,’ at a political rally in Tuskegee, Alabama, April 29, 1966.
AP Photo/Jack Thornell
When Rosa Parks was arrested for sitting in the front of a bus in Montgomery, Fred Gray was her lawyer. Now he’s being honored for a lifetime of civil rights advocacy.
Ketanji Brown Jackson is the first Black woman to serve on the highest court in the land.
Fred Schilling/Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via Getty Images)
President Joe Biden’s nominee for the US Supreme Court withstood four days of hearings and was confirmed to become the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the U.S. Congress.
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In a speech that touched on America’s darkest days and most inspirational leaders, Ukraine’s embattled president made a powerful call for stronger action on Russia.
Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh praying during a three-day requiem for the souls of Vietnam War victims in 2007.
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Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings, which earned him a global following, gave simple instructions on mindfulness and emphasized how it could be practiced anytime, even when doing routine chores.
Martin Luther King Jr. waves with his children, Yolanda and Martin Luther III, from the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City.
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In his brief life, Martin Luther King Jr. had a variety of interests that informed his work as leader of the civil rights movement. His alma mater has collected some objects that tell his story.
President Lyndon B. Johnson, right, talks with Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders in his White House office in Washington, D.C., Jan. 18, 1964.
AP Photo
MLK’s vision for nonviolence included abolishing what he called triple evils – racism, poverty and militarism.
Bernice A. King, daughter of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, at a recent press conference preview the King Holiday observance in Atlanta, Georgia.
EPA-EFE/Erik S. Lesser
Kaunda will be remembered as a giant of 20th century African nationalism – a leader who gave refuge to revolutionary movements, a relatively benign autocrat and an international diplomat.
Civil rights activist James Meredith grimaces in pain as he pulls himself across Highway 51 after being shot in Hernando, Mississippi, during his March Against Fear.
AP Photo/Jack Thornell, File
Meredith is a civil rights hero who doesn’t fit neatly into political categories. He espouses conservative ideas, yet he proclaims a radical mission to destroy white supremacy.
Resurrection of Christ depicted in 14th-century fresco in Chora Church, Istanbul, Turkey.
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US cities began naming streets in Black neighborhoods for Martin Luther King Jr. after his 1968 assassination. Researchers studying these areas 50 years later found entrenched deprivation.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preaching from his pulpit in 1960 at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
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The church has played a vital role in America’s civil rights struggle. It was the spiritual home to MLK, to the generations that shaped the vision of the late civil rights leader, and now to Sen. Raphael Warnock.
In Atlanta, people gather to dance and celebrate the election of Joe Biden as the next president.
AP Photo/Brynn Anderson
A set of efforts that registered 800,000 new voters since 2018 may have been the key to Georgia turning blue in a presidential election for the first time since 1992.
Managing Director of the McCourtney Institute of Democracy, Associate Research Professor, Political Science, Co-host of Democracy Works Podcast, Penn State