Total Credits: 1
"Toward the Cooperative Commonwealth”: the eighth and concluding lecture in this ETSA webinar series entitled “Reconstructing American Democracy,” illustrated by gripping images like the others. The lecture starts out describing the grand alliance (electoral and nonelectoral) that Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy set out to build in 1968, only to die with the assassination of both leaders. Returning to the theme of the half-century corporate revolution that still dominates our lives, the lecture explores how it might be possible to build an even broader electoral coalition today that can bring together peoples of color and white people around common needs and aims, leading toward racial, economic, immigrant, and climate justice for all Americans.
Activist historian Stewart Burns, is the only major Martin Luther King Jr. biographer who participated in the Black Freedom Movement, including the 1963 March on Washington. His background includes many years of nonviolent activism organizing for justice and peace that has been enlightened by thirty years studying Dr. King’s leadership and the Black Movement. From forming a high school civil rights committee, to organizing anti-Vietnam War protests and resisting the draft, to protesting nuclear power and first-strike nuclear weapons, to fostering interracial communication at Stanford, Williams, and other colleges, he has devoted his life to teaching and practicing Kingian “soul force.” Dr. Burns is Professor and Chair of Ethical & Creative Leadership, as well as Faculty in Martin Luther King Jr. Studies at Union Institute & University's Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program.