Exploring economic injustice and the harmful paradigm of individualism in American culture with Dr. Harvey Cox. Cox was a Hollis Research Professor of Divinity at Harvard, where he began teaching in 1965, both at HDS and in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. An American Baptist minister, he was the Protestant chaplain at Temple University and the director of religious activities at Oberlin College; an ecumenical fraternal worker in Berlin; and a professor at Andover Newton Theological School. His research and teaching interests focus on the interaction of religion, culture, and politics. Among the issues he explores are urbanization, theological developments in world Christianity, Jewish-Christian relations, and current spiritual movements in the global setting (particularly Pentecostalism). He has been a visiting professor at Brandeis University, Seminario Bautista de Mexico, the Naropa Institute, and the University of Michigan. He is the author of bestselling books The Market as God and the Secular City. Harvey Cox was a Harvard doctoral student in the early 1960s when his friend the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called and asked him to help create a Boston branch of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the influential Civil Rights organization that King helped found in 1957. Starting in 1962 and for the next few years, Cox recruited people for Southern Civil Rights marches, rallies, and demonstrations, where nonviolent protesters often were repeatedly attacked by police and local authorities, and was invited to be the keynote speaker at an annual SCLC event. Cox took part in several protests, including two marches from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. The two remained friends until King was assassinated in 1968. Learn more about his time with King at https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/01/my-memories-of-dr-king/
Dr. Virgil Wood served with Martin Luther King Jr. as a member of his National Executive Board of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; he worked closely with him for 10 years. He also coordinated the state of Virginia in the historic "March on Washington" on Aug. 28, 1963. He also served as a panelist and member of three White House conferences under the Johnson, Nixon, and Carter administrations. Dr. Wood received his bachelor of arts degree from Virginia Union University and holds a doctorate in education from Harvard University. His publications include “In Love We Trust: Lessons I Learned from Martin Luther King,” “The Jubilee Bible,” and “Introduction to Black Church Economic Studies."
Originally coined by 19th century philosopher Josiah Royce, the term Beloved Community refers to a way of life that is based on pure, unconditional love for humankind. Beloved community is not merely about the community itself— it’s about the individuals within a community. It is the notion that a true community may not exist without the inclusion of the singular parts that make up the beloved whole. This concept made its way into the hands of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., serving as a guiding vision during the fight for civil rights in the mid-20th century. The neighborhood in which we are raised has a tremendous role in determining our sense of self, which in turn plays a role in cultivating a shared sense of identity with the world around us. With this in mind, it is essential that the basic elements of our communities– politics, culture, economy, and design– reflect a central focus on equity. Equity in communities consists of the smallest of gestures and opportunities for genuine interaction and have a powerful ripple effect on the overall well-being of a neighborhood. Creating an organic community is intuitive only if it is not attempted to be artificially “designed”. Communities are not defined by their physical attributes or aesthetics, but rather by the people within them. It is the love that people put into action that creates the physical community. It’s what defines the difference between existing in a community and belonging to a community. In a world where cities are expected to produce a consistent output of capital, resources, and opportunities amongst ever-growing – and therefore ever diversifying – populations, it is crucial to consider how equity of access to resources in the urban setting may continue in a sustainable fashion into the future. Pulling from interviews conducted with decade long colleagues of the late Martin Luther King, including Dr. Virgil Wood and Harvey Cox of Harvard Divinity School (author of bestsellers “Market as God” and “Secular City”), as well as academic articles surrounding equity in architecture and Louis Kelso’s Binary Economic Theory, a plethora of resources have been compiled to fulfill King’s vision from the fields of architecture, planning, economic theory, and environmental psychology. Through sharing these findings and resources with fellow designers, policy makers, and stakeholders, I believe a powerful potential for inter-sectional collaboration may be developed through creating a shared foundation of beloved values.