FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 20, 2014
CONTACT:
Juliet Vedral (media@sojo.net)
202-745-4625
Sojourners honors the legacy of historian Dr. Vincent G. Harding
WASHINGTON, DC—Sojourners laments the passing of well-known historian and scholar Dr. Vincent Gordon Harding, who died on May 19. Harding, author of many books including Hope and History and There is a River: The Black Struggle for Freedom in America, was a contributing editor for Sojourners magazine.
Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners and a friend of Harding, released this statement in response to Harding's death: “This is a great loss for our movement and the world and for all of us here at Sojourners. Vincent loved and served us so often in our history. He was an elder and mentor to me and to many of us. I am so grateful for a life so well lived. Thanks be to God for Vincent Harding. We are poorer for his passing and richer for having known him.”
A leading figure in the civil rights movement, Harding served as a speechwriter for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and helped write, among others, the seminal speech “Beyond Vietnam.” Harding was the first director of the Martin Luther King Memorial Center in Atlanta, and cofounder and chair of The Veterans of Hope Project—which documents and promotes democracy, reconciliation, and nonviolence—at Illiff School of Theology in Denver, where Harding taught for more than 20 years and served as Professor Emeritus of Religion and Social Transformation.
Since the early 1980s, Sojourners has worked with Harding to encourage and equip leaders in the faith-based movement for social justice. From his earliest writings about democracy and racial justice to his last Sojourners magazine article “To Redeem the Soul of America,” Harding remained a steadfast activist and ally in the struggle for freedom.
A select list of Harding’s writings and interviews with Sojourners is listed below:
“The Content of Our Character”(Sojourners, September-October 2010)
Why do so many try to lighten the impact of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech?
“‘Our Children Are Waiting for the Music’”(Sojourners, January 2010)
An open letter from a civil rights elder to President Obama.
“Midwifing a New America”(Sojourners’ God’s Politics blog, December 2008)
Something is trying to be born in America.
“The Heart to Struggle”(Sojourners, November-December 1995)
Democracy’s history is one of perseverance.
“In the Company of the Faithful”(Sojourners, May 1985)
Journeying toward the Promised Land.
For additional biographical material and a timeline of significant life events, see ‘I’ve Known Rivers’: The story of freedom movement leaders Rosemarie Freeney Harding and Vincent Harding(2004), by Sojourners senior associate editor Rose Marie Berger.
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Sojourners' mission is to articulate the biblical call to social justice, inspiring hope and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world. Visit www.sojo.net.