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Millions today will celebrate the extraordinary life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights leader who transformed America and demonstrated the power of nonviolent struggle.
Not as well-known to many is theologian Howard Thurman, a major influence on King’s thinking. It was following Thurman’s historic meeting with Mahatma Gandhi in India that the idea of nonviolent resistance first came to the civil rights movement. Thurman emphasized spiritual cultivation along with social activism. As history professor Paul Harvey says, on King’s 89th birthday, it’s worth looking at how he learned to “integrate spiritual growth and social transformation,” in part through Thurman’s influence.
Plus, historian Chantalle Verna points out why Donald Trump’s recent denigrating comments about Haiti aren’t just offensive – they also reflect an ignorance of migration history. For centuries, Haitians have been coming to the U.S., many of them driven from home by the repeated American military interventions and economic embargoes that have destabilized life in this Caribbean nation.
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. , chats with African-Americans during a door-to-door campaign in 1964.
AP Photo/JAB
Paul Harvey, University of Colorado
African-American minister, theologian and mystic, Howard Thurman, left a profound influence on Martin Luther King Jr.
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After Haiti signed its Declaration of Independence from France, in 1804, the U.S. started a 60-year political and economic embargo that hobbled the young nation’s growth.
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Chantalle F. Verna, Florida International University
Trump's anti-Haitian rhetoric ignores a long pattern of migration from Haiti to the U.S., often driven by American meddling in Haitian affairs. Today, the two nations are irrevocably bound by history.
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Martin Luther King Jr. Day
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Kenyatta R. Gilbert, Howard University
Martin Luther King Jr. used a prophetic voice in his preaching -- a hopeful voice that addressed human tragedy. But it was the black clerics who came before him, who helped King develop that voice.
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Christopher Beem, Pennsylvania State University
King led one of the most successful resistance movements in American history. A scholar explains King's strategies in resistance.
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Kenneth Anderson Taylor, Texas A&M University
The people leading nonprofits are much less diverse than the communities they serve and there's no reason to expect that to change soon.
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Joshua F.J. Inwood, Pennsylvania State University
Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision of love was not sentimental. It demanded that individuals tell their oppressors what they were doing was wrong.
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Dakota McCoy, Harvard University
Male Birds of Paradise have patches of super-black plumage that absorb 99.95 percent of light. New research identified their feathers' microscopic structures that make them look so very dark.
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Richard Gunderman, Indiana University
Don't believe these 10 common myths about the 1918 Spanish flu.
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Jennifer Francis, Rutgers University
An atmospheric scientist who studies the Arctic explains why – because of global warming – the U.S. may be in for longer cold spells in the winter.
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