Vincent Gordon Harding (July 25, 1931 – May 19, 2014) was an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

, and scholar of various topics with a focus on American religion and

society A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soci ...

. A social activist, he was perhaps best known for his work with and writings about

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

, whom Harding knew personally. Besides having authored numerous books such as ''There Is A River'', ''Hope and History'', and ''Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero'', he served as co-chairperson of the social unity group Veterans of Hope Project and as Professor of Religion and Social Transformation at

Iliff School of Theology Iliff School of Theology is a graduate Methodist theological school in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1892, the school's campus is adjacent to the University of Denver. Fewer than 200 students attend the school. Iliff is one of thirteen United ...

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

. When Harding died on May 19, 2014, his daughter, Rachel Elizabeth Harding, publicly eulogized him on the Veterans of Hope Project website.

Education

Harding was born on July 25, 1931, in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

, New York, and attended New York public schools, graduating from Morris High School in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

in 1948. After finishing high school, he enrolled in the City College of New York, where he received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

in history in 1952. The following year he graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, where he earned a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast t ...

degree in journalism. Harding served in the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

from 1953 to 1955. In 1956 he received a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

degree in history at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

. In 1965 he received his

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

degree in history from the University of Chicago, where he was advised by Martin E. Marty.

Career

In 1960, Harding and his wife, Rosemarie Freeney Harding, moved to

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, to participate in the Southern Freedom Movement as representatives of the Mennonite Church. The Hardings co-founded Mennonite House, an interracial voluntary service center and movement gathering place in Atlanta. The couple traveled throughout the South in the early 1960s working as reconcilers, counselors and participants in the Movement, assisting the anti-segregation campaigns of the

Southern Christian Leadership Conference The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civ ...

(SCLC), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the

Congress of Racial Equality The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission is "to bring about ...

(CORE). Vincent Harding occasionally drafted speeches for

, including King's famous anti-Vietnam speech, " A Time to Break Silence", which King delivered on April 4, 1967, at Riverside Church in New York City, exactly a year before he was assassinated. Harding taught at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

Spelman College Spelman College is a private, historically black, women's liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia. It is part of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium in Atlanta. Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman rece ...

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then calle ...

, Swarthmore College, and

Pendle Hill Quaker Center for Study and Contemplation Pendle Hill is a Quaker study, retreat, and conference center located on a campus in suburban Wallingford, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. It was named for the hill in Lancashire, England, that the first Quaker preacher described as the site ...

. In the months after King's 1968 assassination, Harding worked with

Coretta Scott King Coretta Scott King ( Scott; April 27, 1927 – January 30, 2006) was an American author, activist, and civil rights leader who was married to Martin Luther King Jr. from 1953 until his death. As an advocate for African-American equality, she ...

to set up the

King Center for Nonviolent Social Change The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, commonly known as The King Center, is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization in Atlanta, United States. History The center was founded in 1968 by Coretta Scott King, who st ...

in Atlanta, and served as its first director. During those same months in 1968, he worked with a group of scholars to set up Atlanta's Institute of the Black World. He also became senior academic consultant for the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

television series '' Eyes on the Prize''. Harding served as chairperson of the ''Veterans of Hope Project: A Center for the Study of Religion and Democratic Renewal'', located at the

. He taught at Iliff as Professor of Religion and Social Transformation from 1981 to 2004.

Beliefs and activism

Harding was a devout Christian and believer in achieving racial and economic equality in the United States. Harding was a

Seventh-day Adventist The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and ...

pastor before becoming a Mennonite pastor. In January 2005, Harding remarked at the Christian

liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term '' art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically th ...

university

Goshen College Goshen College is a private Mennonite liberal arts college in Goshen, Indiana. It was founded in 1894 as the Elkhart Institute of Science, Industry and the Arts, and is affiliated with Mennonite Church USA. The college is accredited by the High ...

Writings

*Chapter 1 ''Widening the Circle: Experiments in Christian Discipleship'' *''African-American Christianity: Essays in History'' *''Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero'' *''Hope and History: Why We Must Share the Story of the Movement'' *''We Must Keep Going: Martin Luther King and the Future of America'' *''There Is a River: The Black Struggle for Freedom in America'' *Foreword to ''Wade in the Water: The Wisdom of the Spirituals'', by Arthur C. Jones *''We Changed the World: African Americans, 1945–1970 (The Young Oxford History of African Americans, V. 9)'' *''A Certain Magnificence: Lyman Beecher and the Transformation of American Protestantism, 1775–1863 (Chicago Studies in the History of American Religion)'' *Introduction to ''How Europe Underdeveloped Africa'', by

Walter Rodney Walter Anthony Rodney (23 March 1942 – 13 June 1980) was a Guyanese historian, political activist and academic. His notable works include '' How Europe Underdeveloped Africa'', first published in 1972. Rodney was assassinated in Georgeto ...

, Howard University Press, editor Gregory S. Kearse *Foreword to ''Jesus and the Disinherited'', by Howard Thurman (Beacon Press, 1996) *''America Will Be! Conversations on Hope, Freedom, and Democracy'' with

Daisaku Ikeda is a Japanese Buddhist philosopher, educator, author, and nuclear disarmament advocate. He served as the third president and then honorary president of the Soka Gakkai, the largest of Japan's new religious movements. Ikeda is the founding pre ...

(Dialogue Path Press, 2013) * "L'espoir de la démocratie", by Vincent Harding and Daisaku Ikeda (In French), (L'Harmattan, 2017, ) *Introduction to ''Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community'' (Beacon press, re-released 2010)

References

Sources

Harding biography
from Berkshire Publishing

from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University
Harding biography
from Shift In Action (

Institute of Noetic Sciences The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) is an American non-profit parapsychological research institute. It was co-founded in 1973 by former astronaut Edgar Mitchell,Pfeffer, Elizabeth''Stars aligned: Astronaut's mission seeks to answer life's bi ...

)
Harding biography
from

Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...

Harding biography
from the Iliff School of Theology
"I've Known Rivers: The story of freedom movement leaders Rosemarie Freeney Harding and Vincent Harding"
from '' Sojourners Magazine''

External links

Vincent Harding Papers, 1952-2014
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library,

*
“Our Lives Can Be Signposts for What‘s Possible”
interview with Vincent Harding by Krista Tippett originally from the Civility, History, and Hope project as aired on ''

On Being ''On Being'' is a podcast and a former public radio program. Hosted by Krista Tippett, it examines what it calls the "animating questions at the center of human life: What does it mean to be human, and how do we want to live?" Radio program and ...

'' (audio + print transcript)
Veterans of Hope Project

from Religion and Ethics Newsweekly
Interview of Harding
on ''

Democracy Now! ''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...

'' (video, audio, and print transcript) * at Stanford University, video recorded October 25, 2007 *1969 radio program, 1989 speech, and 1996 radio story o
SoundTheology
Use the Selected Speakers drop-down to choose Harding, Vincent.

Articles

"Is America Possible?"
by Vincent Harding, from ''

'', Feb 24, 2011
"Dangerous Spirituality"
by Vincent Harding, from ''Sojourners Magazine''

by Vincent Harding, from ''Cross Currents Magazine'', Fall 1996, Vol. 46, Issue 3. *
"How Shall We Celebrate Martin Luther King's Birthday?"
by Vincent and Rosemarie Harding, from '' Yes! Magazine''
"Freedom's Sacred Dance"
by Vincent and Rosemarie Harding, from ''Yes! Magazine'', October 27, 2000. {{DEFAULTSORT:Harding, Vincent 1931 births 2014 deaths Activists for African-American civil rights Black studies scholars American biographers American historians of religion American Mennonites City College of New York alumni Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni Former Seventh-day Adventists Historians from New York (state) Historians of African Americans Historians of the United States American male biographers Mennonite writers People from Harlem University of Chicago alumni Writers from Manhattan Historians of the civil rights movement