Tag Archives: Martin Luther King

Alexei Navalny as Harry Potter?

Some Russians saw Navalny, recently killed by Putin, as a Harry Potter “boy who lived.” That dream is gone but others live on.

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Words That Burn the Center of the Sun

In her poem about Martin Luther King, Gwendolyn Brooks opposes the volcanic fire of hate against the sun’s fire of transcendent justice.

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The Lynching of Jesus

In “Christ in Alabama,” Hughes imagines a black Christ being lynched by a white mob.

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The Embattled Classics

The alt-right is trying to drag the Greek and Roman classics into culture wars again. Classicists are well positioned to fight back.

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The City on the Hill Requires Climbing

Amanda’s Gorman’s “Hill We Climb” provides an African American slant to Winthrop’s “city on a hill” image.

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Time to Revisit “I Have a Dream”

Given the protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death, it’s worth revisiting King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, with its synthesis of civil rights and religious vision.

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Inspired by MLK and Lucille Clifton

To honor Martin Luther King, I share a hard-hitting but hopeful Lucille Clifton essay by a first-year African-American student who is fulfilling his dream.

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America, Racist and Revolutionary Both

In America, Jamaican immigrant Claude McKay reminds America what makes it great, even as he exposes its dark side.

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Lift Every Voice and Sing

Both Martin Luther King and James Weldon Johnson, in “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” drew strength and courage from the Book of Exodus.

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