Vincent Harding Editor

Vincent Harding (1931-2014) was a central participant in the struggles of the American Civil Rights Movement. A colleague and confidant of Martin Luther King, for whom he prepared several speeches, he drafted King's famous oration delivered at Riverside Church in 1967 condemning the Vietnam War. Professor of Theology from 1981-2004 at Illiff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado, he was also co-founder and chairperson of Veterans of Hope, an initiative emphasizing nonviolent approaches to social change. His books include There is a River: The Black Struggle for Freedom in America and Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero. Daisaku Ikeda (1928-) is President of Soka Gakkai International, a Buddhist network that actively promotes peace, culture and education, whose members come from over 190 countries worldwide. He is the author of more than 100 books on Buddhist themes, and received the United Nations Peace Award in 1983.