Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
To realize King’s dream, we must reject Trump’s divisive rhetoric (COMMENTARY)
By Jennifer Butler — April 4, 2016
(RNS) When we celebrate the legacy of King yet fail to embrace his struggle, we deprive ourselves of the spiritual and political revolution for which King lived and died.
Faith leaders ask candidates to give poor ‘living wage’
By Adelle M. Banks — April 4, 2016
(RNS) “(T)he next President can lift millions out of poverty and secure a brighter future for all Americans,” they say.
‘Moral Mondays’ leader starts ‘moral revolution’ tour
By Adelle M. Banks — March 29, 2016
(RNS) “Way too much of our national discourse has been poisoned by hateful language and policies,” said the Rev. William J. Barber II.
King memorial planned for Georgia’s Stone Mountain
By Reuters — October 11, 2015
ATLANTA (Reuters) Stone Mountain is best known for the "Confederate Mount Rushmore," a 90-ft relief sculpture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee and General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.
Confederate flags placed outside MLK’s Atlanta church
By USA Today Network — July 31, 2015
ATLANTA - Authorities have images of the men placing the flags outside Ebenezer Baptist Church; they say they have not ruled out hate crime charges.
Gay civil rights activist, MLK mentor Bayard Rustin to be honored
By Renée K. Gadoua — June 30, 2015
(RNS) Years before the gay rights movement gained momentum, the openly gay black activist, a Quaker, advised Martin Luther King Jr. on nonviolent protest tactics and organized the 1963 March on Washington.
PHOTOS: Lost images of the march from Selma, 50 years later
By Sally Morrow — March 24, 2015
(RNS) "We didn't know what would happen when we reached the capitol. We were singing the civil rights song, 'I Am Not Afraid,' but, yes, I was afraid."
The road from Selma was paved with the blood of four unsung martyrs
By Adelle M. Banks — March 5, 2015
(RNS) A Baptist deacon, a minister, a Unitarian laywoman and an Episcopal seminarian sacrificed their lives in connection with the Alabama voting rights protests.
U.S. churchgoers still sit in segregated pews, and most are OK with that
By Cathy Lynn Grossman — January 16, 2015
WASHINGTON (RNS) But beware, said LifeWay Research director Ed Stetzer: "If you don't like diversity, you're really not going to like heaven."
Ralph Abernathy: Martin Luther King Jr.’s overlooked ‘civil rights twin’
By Adelle M. Banks — January 15, 2015
(RNS) “They used to call them the civil rights twins -- he and Dr. King,” recalled Terrie Randolph, who was Ralph Abernathy’s secretary when he became president of SCLC after King’s death. “You wouldn’t see one without the other."
The long march from ‘Exodus’ to ‘Selma’ (COMMENTARY)
By Jeffrey Salkin — January 2, 2015
(RNS) When you strip away the costumes, mythology, and mascara-wearing Egyptians monarchs, what do you really have? “Exodus” is a film about the birth of freedom. A people demands its rights. A leader screams out for redemption. Sound familiar?
Black churches are no longer ground zero for civil rights activism
By Adelle M. Banks — December 18, 2014
(RNS) “The church is jumping in to lend its support -- not to lead it -- which is a different place from where the black church has been historically," said Baltimore pastor Jamal-Harrison Bryant.
Historic civil rights church to be considered for national recognition
By Adelle M. Banks — September 16, 2014
“This was the spiritual workplace of the civil rights movement,” said the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy III, whose foundation is seeking to have the site of the historic church designated as a national park.
MLK’s daughter seeks nonviolent Ferguson response
By Elisa Crouch — August 27, 2014
BELLEFONTAINE NEIGHBORS, Mo. (RNS) Bernice King and others from the King Center in Atlanta are meeting with Missouri high school students to help them channel anger over the police shooting of Michael Brown into positive change.
Update: Family fight over MLK Bible inches toward resolution
By Adelle M. Banks — February 20, 2014
(RNS) Bernice King had said that her father "MUST be turning in his grave" over her brothers' attempts to sell his Bible and Nobel Peace Prize medal, calling it "outright morally reprehensible.”
