Black History Month
Photo Slideshow: “Realize the Dream” – a glimpse into the March on Washington 50th anniversary commemoration
By Adelle M. Banks — August 26, 2013
(RNS) Tens of thousands of people -- led by clergy, civil rights veterans and activists -- gathered in the nation's capital on Aug. 24, 2013 to remember the 1963 March on Washington. These photos give a glimpse of what it was like to be there.
5 religious facts you might not know about Frederick Douglass
By Adelle M. Banks — June 19, 2013
(RNS) Frederick Douglass, whose seven-foot bronze statue was unveiled at the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, is known as the father of the civil rights movement. But the 19th-century abolitionist and former slave was also a licensed preacher.
Exhibit highlights blacks’ connection to Scripture
By Chris Herlinger — February 26, 2013
NEW YORK (RNS) One fact is unmistakable after seeing a new exhibit of African American art at New York's Museum of Biblical Art: Biblical narratives have been the key constant in the lives of African-American Christians.
Myrlie Evers-Williams: Inauguration timing is a `miracle’
By Adelle M. Banks — January 14, 2013
(RNS) Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, will be the first laywoman to give an invocation at a presidential inauguration when she prays at President Obama’s swearing-in on Jan. 21. By Adelle M. Banks.
Southern Baptists elect Fred Luter as first black president
By Adelle M. Banks — June 19, 2012
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Pointing heavenward and wiping away tears, the Rev. Fred Luter was elected Tuesday (June 19) as the first black president of the predominantly white Southern Baptist Convention. By Adelle M. Banks.
Blacks say atheists were unseen civil rights heroes
By Kevin Eckstrom — February 22, 2012
Why is Martin Luther King, a Christian, remembered by so many for his contributions to the civil rights movement while A. Philip Randolph, an atheist, is honored by so few? That is a question many black nonbelievers are asking this Black History Month. By Kimberly Winston.
Beloved hymns carried King through troubled times
By Adelle M. Banks — January 12, 2012
(RNS) At 87, the Rev. C.T. Vivian can still recall the moment, decades after the height of the civil rights movement. As he stood to conclude a meeting in his Atlanta home, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. joined his activist colleagues in song, his eyes closed, rocking back and forth on his heels. “There […]
MLK memorial dedication is dream fulfilled for black churches
By Adelle M. Banks — October 17, 2011
WASHINGTON (RNS) In a ceremony that blended worship and a call to action, tens of thousands gathered Sunday (Oct. 16) for the official dedication of a national memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “In this place, he will stand for all time, among monuments to those who fathered this nation and those who […]
Behind a mighty civil rights icon, a public and private prayer life
By Tracy Gordon — January 13, 2011
(RNS) The late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has long been hailed as a civil rights leader, but religious studies professor Lewis Baldwin said one aspect of his life has often been overlooked: the role of prayer. “In order to understand him, you must begin, I think, with this idea of King as a spiritual […]
Play examines South’s black church arsons
By Tracy Gordon — November 25, 2010
WASHINGTON (RNS) For playwright Marcus Gardley, the theater is his pulpit and plays are his sermons. His latest production, “every tongue confess,” seeks answers to the questions that swirled around the spate of arsons that hit black churches in the South in the 1990s. “How deep does your forgiveness go?” Gardley asks in an interview. […]
In Rosa Parks’ estate, evidence of a lifelong quiet faith
By Adelle M. Banks — July 22, 2008
NEW YORK-Civil rights icon Rosa Parks used to jot notes in her church bulletins, noting sermon titles and song selections. She kept a postcard sent by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. when he visited Rome two years after she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, […]
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