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

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

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 species; as well as the ...

, 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. ...

. A

social activist Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make Social change, changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from ...

, 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, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...

, 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 in

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. 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 ...

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

the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

in 1948. After finishing high school, he enrolled in the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

, where he received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in history in 1952. The following year he graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, where he earned a

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

degree in journalism. Harding served in the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

from 1953 to 1955. In 1956 he received a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) 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. Those admitted to the degree have ...

degree in history at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. In 1965 he received his

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

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 List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, 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 Americans, African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., ...

(SCLC), the

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and later, the Student National Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emer ...

(SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (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 (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

Spelman College Spelman College is a Private college, private, Historically black colleges and universities, historically black, Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia ...

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...

, and Pendle Hill Quaker Center for Study and Contemplation. In the months after King's 1968 assassination, Harding worked with Coretta Scott King to set up the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change 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 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 Iliff School of Theology in

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

Beliefs and activism

Harding was a devout

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

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

Seventh-day Adventist The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) 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 Sabbat ...

pastor before becoming a

Mennonite Mennonites are a group of Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name ''Mennonites'' is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of ...

pastor. In January 2005, Harding remarked at the Christian

liberal arts Liberal arts education () is a traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''skill, art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the fine arts. ''Liberal arts education'' can refe ...

university

Goshen College Goshen College is a Private college, private Mennonite Church USA, Mennonite Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Goshen, Indiana. It was founded in 1894 as the Elkhart Institute of Science, Industry and the Arts, a ...

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. He was assassinated in Georgetown, ...

, 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 was a Japanese Buddhist leader, author, educator and nuclear disarmament advocate. He served as the third president and then honorary president of the Soka Gakkai, which is considered among the largest of Japan's new religious movements but ...

(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 Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Harding biography
from Shift In Action ( Institute of Noetic Sciences)
Harding biography
from

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

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

from Religion and Ethics Newsweekly
Interview of Harding
on ''

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

'' (video, audio, and print transcript) * at

, 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 '' On Being'', 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 Iliff School of Theology faculty