Harding also knew that 黑料正能量 was the first historically white colleges in Virginia to admit African-American students and one of the first in the South. But those students couldn鈥檛 go into most restaurants in Harrisonburg and their parents couldn鈥檛 stay in local hotels when they came to visit their children.

Now 82, Harding is coming back to 黑料正能量. He is the speaker for the second annual. His topic: 鈥淚s America Possible?鈥� He will also speak at the university chapel service earlier that day at 10 a.m. in Lehman Auditorium and at the seminary chapel the next day at 11 a.m. in Martin Chapel.

Harding was a close friend of Martin Luther King Jr. for the last 10 years of King鈥檚 life. Harding is perhaps best known as the person who drafted King鈥檚 powerful (and controversial)聽 speech, in which King announced his opposition to the Vietnam War and criticized the destructive, unfair impact of U.S. economic, political and social policies, both domestically and abroad. King delivered the speech on April 4, 1967, before a group of anti-war opinion leaders at Riverside Church in New York City.

After King鈥檚 assassination exactly a year later, Harding became the first director of the . Later he was the senior academic advisor for the PBS television series on the civil rights movement titled “Eyes on the Prize.” In a 2008 interview with Democracy Now, Harding said that King toward the end of his life 鈥渨as calling us to a way that was very difficult, a way beyond racism, a way beyond materialism and a way beyond militarism.鈥�

Harding founded the Veterans of Hope Project, which continues to collect the stories of people who dedicated their lives to social change. The project is based at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, where he was a professor of religion and social transformation for 23 years until his retirement in 2004.

He says his current work is focused on encouraging America to become 鈥渨e the people鈥� and to create a 鈥渕ore perfect union鈥� as well as participate in the making of a more just and compassionate world. His most recent book, published in 2013, is America Will Be! It is a volume of conversations on hope, freedom, and democracy between Harding and longtime Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda.

Harding鈥檚 other books include There Is a River 鈥� The Black Struggle for Freedom in America; Martin Luther King 鈥� The Inconvenient Hero; and Hope and History 鈥� Why We Must Share the Story of the Movement.

A native of New York City, Harding graduated in history from City College of New York in 1952, then earned a master鈥檚 degree in journalism from Columbia University in 1953, before serving two years in the U.S. Army. In 1956 he earned a master鈥檚 degree in history from the University of Chicago, followed by a doctorate in history from Chicago in 1965.

In the mid-1950s he learned about the Anabaptist/Mennonite movement of the Protestant Reformation. From 1958 to 1961, Harding was the co-pastor of Woodlawn Mennonite Church in Chicago. He often challenged Mennonites to live up to, and stand up for, their ideals about sisterhood and brotherhood socially and politically. At a conference on Mennonites and Race in Chicago in 1959, Harding met his future wife, Rosemarie Freeney. She was a 1955 sociology graduate of a Mennonite college, Goshen in Indiana, and a member of , where she worked in social services.

Vincent and Rosemarie married in 1960 and, in 1961, settled in Atlanta, Georgia, where they founded the South鈥檚 first interracial voluntary service center, Mennonite House, under the auspices of . The center, which was also their home (a block from Martin Luther King鈥檚 home), was an important gathering place for movement activists who found respite, hospitality, encouragement and stimulating dialogue. (Just before Rosemarie died from complications of diabetes in 2004, she noted that she had remained a member of Bethel Mennonite Church over her adult life.)

During Vincent鈥檚 first visit to 黑料正能量 鈥� and subsequent visits over the years 鈥� 鈥渉e shocked and offended some members of the community, but inspired and energized others,鈥� says 黑料正能量 professor . Among the inspired were two 黑料正能量 professors, John Lapp and Samuel Horst, who helped start a committee that pushed for 鈥� and won 鈥� integration of the public schools in Harrisonburg.

The Keim History Lecture Series are named for the late Albert Keim, a member of the 黑料正能量 faculty from 1965 to 2000. For seven of those years he was academic dean. Keim was a popular history professor, and his courses included African-American History.