PRESENTED BY THE KINGIAN NONVIOLENCE COORDINATING COMMITTEE

Beyond The Dream: The Radical Love of Martin Luther King, Jr.

September 2018 - February 2019

Online Professional Development for Social Change Organizers and Nonviolence Educators

Connect with the philosophy and methodology of nonviolence and explore its applications for your organizing and training work today.  Participate in an online Beloved Community to support your growth and leadership.

Join in nine 90-minute online sessions to discuss the writings of MLK and others who organized and led in each stage of the Black Freedom & Civil Rights Movement.

“Beyond the Dream” provides a learning cohort for organizers, trainers and educators to go deep with the nonviolence philosophy and methodology of the US Black Freedom struggle. Read and discuss Dr. King’s five books alongside writings by and about Bayard Rustin and women leaders in the movement (Ella Baker, Dorothy Cotton, JoAnn Gibson Robinson, Coretta Scott King and more). In online, listserv, and social media interactions, apply the material to your organizing and teaching/training today.

Dr. King’s legacy for today is more than the “I Have a Dream” speech. King was an organizer, a radical, and a revolutionary who called the US government the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world” and demanded  “radical redistribution of economic and political power.”  Above all, King taught us that love is the most potent weapon at our disposal. After his assassination, Dr. King’s philosophy and methodology were synthesized by Bernard Lafayette, Jr., and David Jehnsen into a methodology called Kingian Nonviolence.

This course is an opportunity for social change organizers and nonviolence educators who want to go deep in history and philosophy in order to reinvigorate your organizing and trainings today.  This program builds on but does not require previous exposure to the Kingian Nonviolence curriculum authored by Bernard Lafayette, Jr., and David Jehnsen. 

In this course, you will:

• Participate in a lively online learning community, through seminar sessions roughly every three weeks, and social media/email communication

• Read selections from all five books authored by Dr. King, complemented by readings by and about women in the movement (JoAnn Robinson, Ella Baker, Dorothy Cotton, Coretta Scott King, and others) and the work of Bayard Rustin.

• Hear from elders who worked in the Civil Rights Movement

• Get real about ways in which we can apply these teachings in our own leadership for justice, peace, nonviolence, and democracy

Calls are 90 minutes and start at 6pm EST (United States).

Each content call focuses around one primary text book (5 by MLK and one each about Bayara Rustin and Dorothy Height).  For each call, we also provide additional essays and chapters by and about women leaders in each phase of the movement.

Meeting dates:

• September 12, 2018, 6-7:30pm Eastern - Orientation and Community-building and Overview of Course Content and Process
• September 26, 2018, 6-7:30pm Eastern - Call Seminar Book 1 - Stride Towards Freedom (MLK)
• October 17, 2018, 6-7:30pm Eastern -  Call Seminar Book 2 - Strength to Love (MLK)
• November 7, 2018, 6-7:30pm Eastern - Call Seminar Book 3 - Why We Can’t Wait (MLK)
• November 28, 2018, 6-7:30pm Eastern - Call Seminar Book 4 - Where Do We Go From Here (MLK)
• December 12, 2018, 6-7:30pm Eastern -  Call Seminar Book 5 - Trumpet of Conscience (MLK)
• January 9, 2019, 6-7:30pm Eastern - Call Seminar Book 6 - Bayard Rustin biography 
• January 30, 2019, 6-7:30pm Eastern - Call Seminary Book 7 - Dorothy Height biography 
• February 6, 2019, 6-7:30pm Eastern - Call Seminar Closing & Evaluation

What is the cost?

The fee is "$400+." With a justice perspective, please consider paying at a higher level if you are able, to make it possible to support our facilitators and other course participants. Please pay somewhere in the range of $1000-$500 if you are being sent by your employer or otherwise in a position to pay more, to support other participants who might not otherwise be able to participate. 

Context for cost: With multiple facilitators and tech support, this 6-month online course takes $8000 of labor to produce. After five years of providing this work at a volunteer level, the Kingian Nonviolence Coordinating Committee is trying to make these programs sustainable for providing leadership. We hope you will find it accessible, and that those who are able will stretch to help make the course succeed financially. If you would like suggestions or support for raising money to meet the course fee, please contact us at [email protected].

Where do I get the readings?

Each participant is expected to find their own copy of each of the major texts. All main texts are widely available in public and academic libraries, and used copies are available through major online booksellers. Some readings are also available for free online. The teaching team will provide digital copies of all additional chapters when the couse starts.

How do I connect?

The course takes places using the online meeting platform Zoom. Participants need access to a computer with speakers and a mic, as well as a stable high-speed internet connection.  There is the option for a backup/secondary audio connection using the phone, but the primary connection for our meetings requires webcam.