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.
Volunteers outside the Christian Cultural Center in New York register new voters as part of the ‘Souls to the Polls’ initiative.
AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews
From the civil rights era to the 2020 election, Black Churches have been at the forefront of encouraging voter registration -- and fighting voter suppression.
Richard Nixon, celebrating his election on Nov. 7, 1968, campaigned against a backdrop of racial inequality, civic unrest and polarized politics.
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There are similarities between the law-and-order language used by the 1968 and 2020 presidential candidates and the racial tension and political polarization both years. But much is different.
Masks Up, Surf City, banner campaign in Huntington Beach, Calif.
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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.