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civil rights

Arun Gandhi and James Lawson share lessons of nonviolence

At the 2018 Parliament of the World's Religions, I had the privilege of hearing Arun Gandhi speak of his grandfather, Mahatma Gandhi, who guided Arun in his formative years. Angry at racism in South Africa, Arun was sent to live with his grandfather in India to learn how to transform his anger into positive action. Two powerful practices were journalling about anger in order to find peaceful ways to address it, and reflecting on the overt and tacit violence he saw or committed as a 14 year old. What wonderful life lessons in peacebuilding for us today!

50 years later: The legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Divine providence brought me to Atlanta, Georgia today, April 4, 2018, exactly 50 years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. King was born, raised and buried in Atlanta, although he became a civil rights activist in Montgomery, Alabama. I read his book, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story, in preparation for this trip. It describes the formation and application of his nonviolent resistance philosophy in the civil rights movement’s first major action, the Montgomery bus boycott demanding desegregation of public transportation.

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