tobin miller shearer.
vincent harding, religion, and the long black freedom struggle
cohort. 2024-25
project. Vincent Harding, Religion, and the Long Black Freedom Struggle: A Curriculum
location. unbounded
medium. research report
The life and actions of Dr. Vincent Gordon Harding offer a new way into the story of the Civil Rights Movement that goes beyond the life of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Learning about Harding’s role as advisor, speech writer, and behind the scenes mediator introduces students to the little known but no less dramatic and influential role that Harding played in overcoming racial prejudice and discrimination. This five-session curriculum for late high school and early college students on the contributions of Black religious practice to the mid-twentieth century Black Freedom Struggle examines key moments and documents from the life story of African-American historian and activist, Dr. Vincent Harding, with a particular focus on religion and Black Power.
curriculum introduction.
The name “Vincent Harding” is not usually one of the first people think of when considering the Civil Rights Movement.
That is a missed opportunity.
Harding was the author of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s most important speech on war and militarism, who also helped negotiate the most high-profile Civil Rights Movement desegregation campaign, was one of the most influential thought leaders in the development of Black Studies courses, and who counted King, James Baldwin, Alice Walker, Andrew Young, and John Lewis all as friends. Even though he wrote more than 290 books, articles, essays, and opinion pieces, few still recognize his name.
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This curriculum aims to correct that error.
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The life and actions of Dr. Vincent Gordon Harding offer a new way into the story of the Civil Rights Movement that goes beyond the life of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Harding’s work as advisor, speech writer, and behind the scenes mediator introduce students to the little known, but no less dramatic and influential, role that Harding played in the struggle to overcome racial prejudice and discrimination.
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But the religious influences that prompted him to talk with white segregationists and write speeches for King and other civil rights leaders didn’t stop with the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. In this curriculum, students will follow Harding forward to 1968 as he also brought his religious beliefs and upbringing to bear on the Black Power movement, a movement for racial change usually presented as entirely secular. They will learn about his mixing of religion and history as he talked – even preached and sang – about the emerging discipline of Black Studies in 1969.
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And, given his relatively long life – he died in 2014 at the age of 82 – students will also see how his merging of religion and civil rights activism did not stay static. His exploration in 1983 of the legacies of the Underground Railroad looked very different than did his work on Black Studies in the 1960s, and those early 1980s efforts, in turn, contrasted with the intergenerational retreats he sponsored in the 1990s and 2000s to bring together civil rights veterans and high school students.
Rather than a static, unchanging instrument of change, the kind of religion practiced by Harding was active and alive. As was the case for many others involved in similar racial justice pursuits, the religious resources they brought to bear shifted with the times, responded to new developments, and changed focus as demanded by the moment.
Throughout his life, Harding was immersed in religious communities. Born in 1931, he grew up attending a small Black Seventh-Day Adventist congregation in Harlem with his mother. After earning degrees in History and Journalism, he went on to study the history of Christianity at the University of Chicago and pastor both Adventist and Mennonite congregations before serving in Atlanta alongside Martin and Coretta Scott King.
He brought that religious upbringing to bear on all the activities that followed. Harding penned King’s 1967 anti-Vietnam War speech and served as the first director of the King Center in Atlanta before garnering a post at Iliff School of Theology in Denver in 1981. He continued to teach from his position as Professor of Religion and Social Change, promote connections between activists and academics, and speak and write on religious themes until his death in 2014.
The previous year he had reflected on the importance of story during a series of conversations with Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda: “And I suggest that we are already living inside our own stories, as if we were storied into being. In the same way that food and water are essential to our survival, stories are also essential. Gathering together to tell stories is absolutely necessary for every human society,” (27). This curriculum brings a central theme of Harding’s story – the contributions of Black religion to the Black Freedom struggle – to students who may never have heard of Harding and who may think of religion in that struggle as nothing more than passionate words spoken from a pulpit.
Students can engage with Harding through a five-session curriculum designed for late high school and early college students. Built around key moments and documents from Harding’s life story, the curriculum focuses on case studies from Harding’s life and a few of the many roles he played. The five, highly interactive and modifiable sessions – which can be easily pitched for student ability and progress – focus on Harding as:
PEACEMAKER
An examination of the role Harding played in mediating conversations between white segregationists and Black Civil Rights activists during the 1963 Birmingham integration campaign. His work as a peacemaker defined one the most important of the roles he played during the civil rights movement and stemmed directly from his religious conviction and beliefs
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To get a sense of Dr. Harding’s voice and way of presenting himself to others, take a look at how he introduced a large festival by singing “We are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder” in 2013 less than a year before his passing. The 3-minute clip also shows how he brought religious resources into nearly every space he entered.
peacemaker.
An examination of the role Harding played in mediating among activists during the 1963 Birmingham integration campaign.
Objective: Introduce students to Vincent Harding and examine his role in the 1963 Birmingham integration campaign as mediator between white segregationists and Black Civil Rights
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Key Concepts:
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Students will identify foundational experiences in Harding’s life prior to 1963.
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Students will recognize the context and goals of the Birmingham desegregation campaign.
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Students will identify mediation as one of the strategies employed by SCLC.
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Students will consider the religious foundations and influences present in Harding’s behind-the-scenes work.
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Estimated Lesson Time: 50 Minutes.
professor.
Objective: Familiarize students with Vincent Harding’s 1968 essay, “The Religion of Black Power,” in which (as one reporter described it) he examined “the intersection of faith and the Black Power movement, the rejection and deep-seated mistrust of Christianity, and the installation of faith-based principles to achieve equality.”
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Key Concepts:
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Students will understand the historical context of the emergence of Black Power
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Students will review the events in Harding’s life since the 1963 Birmingham campaign
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Students will examine the main ideas present in Harding’s essay
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Students will evaluate the tensions between the Black Power movement and the practice of Christianity in 1968
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Students will consider the impact of Harding’s essay on activists and intellectuals of the era
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Estimated Lesson Time: 50 Minutes.
prophet.
Objective: Introduce and analyze the 1969 gathering of Black Studies program leaders in Atlanta at which Harding gave a speech integrating in both form and substance Black Power and Black Religion. His role as a prophet - one who challenges the status quo by drawing on a sense of religious calling - comes through in the speech he delivered at this gathering. In his talk, he acts a prophet not only to the Black Studies leaders gathered at the meeting but also the White-dominated system of colleges and universities. Given the influential role Harding played in establishing the form and content of the Black Studies Movement’s curriculum and scholarship, his speech and its reception challenge the assumption that Black Studies were primarily - if not exclusively - political in motivation and form by demonstrating a significant religious strand in the early years of the Black studies movement’s formation.
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Key Concepts:
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Students will review the primary tenets of the Black Studies movement
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Students will compare Harding’s speech to a sermon from the Black Baptist tradition
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Students will identify the ways in which Harding’s use of Black religious forms shaped participants’ engagement with and promotion of Black Studies programs
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Estimated Lesson Time: 50 Minutes.
pilgrim.
Objective: Assess changes to Dr. Harding’s religious commitments and expressions by examining an unpublished semi-biographical essay he wrote for National Geographic in 1983 about the trip he took with his wife Rosemarie, daughter Rachel, and son Jonathan through the route of the Underground Railroad the previous year. In the essay, he discusses his own religious commitments, that of Harriet Tubman and other Underground Railroad leaders, and the inheritors of the legacy of the Underground Railroad in the communities and institutions that he and his family visited.
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Key Concepts:
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Students will learn about the changes in Harding’s life from last encountering him in 1969 through his 1983 Underground Railroad trip
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Students will creatively imagine the experience of those seeking freedom on the Underground Railroad
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Students will evaluate key moments from Harding’s pilgrimage in order to understand the nature of his spirituality
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Students will consider the historical connections between resistance to various forms of racism and the African-American religious tradition as expressed in Dr. Harding’s life
Estimated Module Time: 50 Minutes.
pastor.
Objective: Introduce students to Harding’s work in the 1990s to organize intergenerational retreats between Civil Rights veterans and high school students using footage from the Eyes on the Prize documentary (for which he was a senior consultant) to further analyze and understand his religious and spiritual commitments. In this module, Harding’s commitment to supporting, encouraging, mentoring, and fostering growth among young people – all roles played by a pastor in a more typical religious setting – are evident.
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Key Concepts:
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Students will review what they have learned in this set of modules about Vincent Harding and his religious commitments and understandings
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Students will analyze the structure and content of Harding’s intergenerational retreats for evidence of his religious commitments and practices
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Students will assess the meaning, significance, tensions, and contributions of religion and religious practices to the Long Black Freedom Struggle
Estimated Lesson Time: 50 Minutes.
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Citation: Shearer, Tobin Miller. “Vincent Harding, Religion, and the Long Black Freedom Struggle: A Curriculum."
SPIRIT HOUSE: A Crossroads Project. September 2025. Date Accessed.
https://www.crossroads-spirithouse.org/shearer.
Tobin Miller Shearer is Professor of History and Director of the African-American Studies Program at the University of Montana. His scholarship has examined children’s contributions to the civil rights struggle through their involvement in the Fresh Air rural hosting program, the history of Black and White Mennonites, the role of religious resources in social change movements, and anti-racism and spirituality.
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