REHABILITATING DEMOCRACY: RESTORING CIVIL RIGHTS AND LEADING THE NEXT HUMAN RIGHTS REVOLUTION

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 414-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Racial Segregation ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Social Gospel ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Martin Luther King ◽  
Christian Congregations

AbstractThis article describes the culture of activist black Christian congregations that propelled campaigns to dismantle legalized racial segregation and advocate for equal justice. Historically, as the imperfections of American democracy were exposed, the most marginal people in the society acted persistently and repeatedly to extend the benefits of democracy to all citizens. The article highlights the distinctive social and intellectual contributions of the secular activist W. E. B. Du Bois and social gospel minister Martin Luther King. The author sees the contemporary discussion and faith-based mobilization around reversing mass incarceration as an outgrowth of the civil rights movement. Finally, the article suggests that leadership for the next global human rights revolution is likely to emerge from students and young leaders who are committed to radically inclusive conceptions of democracy, equality, and social justice.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 3-10
Author(s):  
Elaine Allen Lechtreck
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African American ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Gospel ◽  
Southern States ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Martin Luther King

The introduction includes Bible verses cited by ministers to defend segregation and verses to oppose segregation. There are slices of the history of the United States, the Civil Rights Movement, and African American history. The southern states, where white ministers confronted segregation, are identified. The term “minister” is explained as well as the variety of labels given these ministers ranging from “Liberal,” Progressive,” “Neo-Orthodox,” “Evangelical Liberal,” “open conservative,” ‘Last Hurrah of the Social Gospel Movement” to “Trouble Maker,” “Traitor, “ “Atheist,” “Communist,” “N_____ Lover.” Rachel Henderlite, the only woman minister mentioned in the book, is identified. Synopses of the book’s seven chapters are included. Comments by historians David Chappell, Charles Reagan Wilson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ernest Campbell, and Thomas Pettigrew are cited.

Breaking White Supremacy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Dorrien
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Social Gospel ◽  
Christian Leadership ◽  
Civil Rights Movements ◽  
Southern Christian Leadership Conference ◽  
Martin Luther King

Breaking White Supremacy analyzes the twentieth-century heyday of the black social gospel and its influence on the Civil Rights Movement. Asserting that Martin Luther King Jr. did not come from nowhere, it describes major figures who influenced King, offers a detailed analysis of King’s leadership of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and his catalyzing and unifying role in the southern and northern Civil Rights Movements, and interprets the legacy of King and the black social gospel tradition.

Moral Politics and the Soul of the World

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Dorrien
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Social Gospel ◽  
Moral Politics ◽  
Howard University ◽  
The World ◽  
Mystical Theology ◽  
Martin Luther King ◽  
Howard Thurman

Benjamin E. Mays and Howard Thurman differently exemplified the black social gospel as theologians, lecture circuit speakers, and academics. In their early careers they formed a social gospel trio with Mordecai Johnson at Howard University. Later they influenced Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. Mays was an educator, theologian, and activist in the Johnson mode, while the later Thurman gave himself to mystical theology and ecumenical ministry.

Mapping the individual and the community in Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

2021 ◽  
pp. 019145372199873
Author(s):  
Ramin Jahanbegloo
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Voting Rights ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Martin Luther King

The protests which followed the death of Black citizens killed by White police officers in the United States show us clearly that the question of non-violent democratic theory is on the table as it was 60 years ago. Martin Luther King, Jr. was well aware of this issue when he became the most important leader of America’s Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. King’s recognition of Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy of non-violence helped him in his campaigns for integration and voting rights, while guiding him to democratize the American democracy and re-evaluate the two concepts of ‘individual’ and ‘community’.

scholarly journals Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Long Social Gospel Movement

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vaneesa Cook
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Social Gospel ◽  
Reinhold Niebuhr ◽  
Social Mission ◽  
Race And Class ◽  
Long Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Martin Luther King

AbstractHistorians have posited several theories in an attempt to explain what many regard as Martin Luther King, Jr.'s radical departure, in the late 1960's, from his earlier, liberal framing of civil rights reform. Rather than view his increasingly critical statements against the Vietnam War and the liberal establishment as evidence of a fundamental change in his thinking, a number of scholars have braided the continuity of King's thought within frameworks of democratic socialism and the long civil rights movement, respectively. King's lifelong struggle for racial justice in America, they argue, was rife with broader and more radical implications than that of a national campaign for political inclusion. His message was global, and it was revolutionary. However, when depicting him exclusively in the context of black radicals during “the long civil rights movement,“ or the labor movement, these scholars have a tendency to downplay the most fundamental component of King's activism - his religion. More so than he referenced the brave black leaders of previous civil rights campaigns, King drew upon the writings and ideas of social gospel thinkers, such as Walter Rauschenbusch and Reinhold Niebuhr. By analyzing King within the context of “the long social gospel movement” in addition to “the long civil rights movement,” we can explain his radical social mission in terms of race and class, but without marginalizing the Christian values at the core of his calling.

An Intimate Yet Anglo-Centric Account of a Renaissance Human Rights Man

2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 120-134
Author(s):  
Dilek Kurban
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Legal Scholar ◽  
Minority Community ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Social

In his well-researched biography, Mike Chinoy chronicles Kevin Boyle's life and career as a scholar, activist and lawyer, bringing to light his under-appreciated role in the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland and the efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, as well as his contributions to human rights movements in the United Kingdom, Europe and the world. Are You With Me? is an important contribution to the literature on the actors who have shaped the norms, institutions and operations of human rights. In its efforts to shed light on one man, the book offers a fresh alternative to state-centric accounts of the origins of human rights. The book offers a portrait of a social movement actor turned legal scholar who used the law to contest the social inequalities against the minority community to which he belonged and to push for a solution to the underlying political conflict, as well as revelations of the complex power dynamics between human rights lawyers and the social movements they represent. In these respects Are You With Me? also provides valuable insights for socio-legal scholars, especially those focusing on legal mobilisation. At the same time the book could have provided a fuller and more complex biographical account had Chinoy been geographically and linguistically comprehensive in selecting his interviewees. The exclusion of Kurdish lawyers and human rights advocates is noticeable, particularly in light of the inclusion of Boyle's local partners in other contexts, such as South Africa.

How Faith-Based Human Rights Work Gets Done in Moscow

2021 ◽  
Vol 120 (828) ◽  
pp. 280-286
Author(s):  
Melissa L. Caldwell
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
The State ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
History Of ◽  
Religious Activism

Churches and other faith-based communities have taken the lead in the human rights sector in Russia. At a time when many secular activists have been harassed, imprisoned, forced into exile, and even murdered, interfaith partnerships working on civil rights for minorities and migrants have been tolerated and officially recognized. Part of a long history of civic–oriented religious activism, they benefit from their legacy as moral leaders. While some religious activists have publicly challenged the Russian state’s authority and values, most have been careful to present themselves as partners of the state, even if their beliefs are not always fully aligned.

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