Location: Decatur Ballroom
Congregations in Atlanta were epicenters of the Civil Rights Movement and remain deeply involved in racial justice today. What has changed in how the press covers faith-led activism? This panel dives into past coverage, current challenges, and the responsibility of reporters navigating protest, power, and public faith.
SPEAKERS
Rev. Dwight Andrews
Dwight Andrews is Pastor of First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ in Atlanta and Professor of Music Theory and African American Music at Emory University. Ordained in 1978, he holds degrees from the University of Michigan, the Yale Divinity School, and Yale University. While at Yale he served as Associate Pastor of Christ’s Church and Pastor of the Black Church at Yale from 1978 to 1988. He has been Senior Pastor of First Congregational Church since 1999. Under his leadership he was instrumental in the restoration, renovation, and expansion of the historic church campus and created a national pulpit where spiritual witness meets progressive advocacy and activism. Distinguished preachers, teachers, activists, and advocates have graced its pulpit, including Congressman John Lewis, Vice President Kamala Harris, mayors, college presidents and prophetic preachers such as Reverends Andrew Young, Robert Franklin, Bernice King, Joseph Lowery, James Forbes, Otis Moss, Jr., and Calvin Butts, to name a few. A scholar as well as an artist, he is active at the intersection of the arts and social justice. As a composer, he has provided music for the dramatic works of August Wilson, Athol Fugard, Wole Soyinka, and Pearl Cleage.
Don Bender
Don Bender was born and raised in a rural Conservative Mennonite community in Greenwood, DE. He graduated from Eastern Mennonite College in Harrisonburg, VA, in 1964 with a major in history and secondary education. In 1966 he moved to Atlanta, GA, under Mennonite Central Committee to perform alternative service as a conscientious objector to war. Mennonite House was located in an African American community and he taught in public school while also becoming involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Mennonite House was located four blocks from Ebenezer Baptist Church where Dr. King preached twice a month. The houses for both SNCC and SCLC out-of-town workers were located on the same block as Mennonite House, so there was much back-and-forth socializing and discussion of the common effort. As Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement changed to include opposition to the Vietnam War, he became involved in that effort, helping to organize a peace march in Atlanta in 1967.
After finishing his alternative service Don married Judith, an ex-Franciscan Nun, and together they moved to Quaker House (QH) nearby in the Druid Hills neighborhood. There he led a draft counseling program as well as organizing anti-war activities.
After leaving QH, the Benders moved a half mile away with several Quaker families to build community in the Candler Park neighborhood. They were involved in the Sanctuary movement to support Central American refugees and Don also became involved in the revitalization of Little Five Points, a nearby commercial village. They still live in Candler Park and are active with the current resistance to authoritarianism.
Rabbi Peter Berg
Peter Berg is the Senior Rabbi of The Temple: The Hebrew Benevolent Congregation. The Temple is Atlanta’s oldest and largest synagogue, founded in 1867.
Rabbi Berg was named by Newsweek and The Daily Beast as one of the most influential rabbis in United States, by Georgia Trend as one of the 100 most influential Georgians, and by Atlanta Magazine as one of Atlanta’s most powerful leaders.
Rabbi Peter Berg lives in Atlanta with his wife Karen and three children – Matan, Noah, and Lior.
Mary C. Curtis
Mary C. Curtis is an award-winning journalist, podcast host and educator. She writes columns for Roll Call, hosts its “Equal Time” podcast, is featured on Charlotte NPR-affiliate WFAE, has worked at The New York Times and Charlotte Observer, with coverage specialty the intersection of politics, culture and race. She has contributed to NPR, The Washington Post, MSNBC and CNN. Curtis is Senior Facilitator with The OpEd Project, leading “Write to Change the World” seminars at Yale University, Ford Foundation and Aspen New Voices in South Africa.
Curtis was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, and was chosen for The HistoryMakers, archived in the Library of Congress, which celebrates African American achievement.
Honored by Society of Professional Journalists, National Association of Black Journalists, received the Thomas Wolfe Award for an examination of Confederate heritage groups, and, in 2022, the Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.
Featured essays in “We Refuse to Be Silent: Women’s Voices on Justice for Black Men,” “Now What: The Voters Have Spoken, Essays on Life After Trump,” “Covering Politics in the Age of Trump” and “Love Her, Love Her Not: The Hillary Paradox.”
Member of St. Gabriel Catholic Church, Charlotte.
Rev. Dr. Robert M. Franklin
Robert M. Franklin, PhD, is the James T. and Berta R. Laney Professor in Moral Leadership at Candler School of Theology. In 1990, he became the first director of the Black Church Studies program at Candler. He is also a Senior Advisor to the President of Emory University. He is President-Emeritus of Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA, having served from 2007 through 2012.
Previously, he was the director of the interfaith religion department at Chautauqua Institution (2014-2017) and a visiting scholar at Stanford University (2013). He is an ordained minister in the American Baptist Church and the Church of God in Christ.
He is the author of four books, including, Moral Leadership: Integrity, Courage, Imagination (2020). He has provided commentaries for National Public Radio’s, “All Things Considered,” and televised commentary for Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasting. Educated at Morehouse College (BA), Harvard Divinity School (M.Div) and the University of Chicago Divinity School (PhD), Robert is the recipient of eight honorary degrees.
Franklin served on the board of the Princeton Theological Seminary until 2024, and currently serves on the board of the CDC Foundation. He is married to Dr. Cheryl Goffney Franklin, a gynecologist at Morehouse Healthcare. They have three children: Imani, Robert and Julian, and two granddaughters.
Dr. Kevin R. Murriel
The Reverend Doctor Kevin R. Murriel serves as the Senior Pastor of Cascade United Methodist Church, a thriving multi-site ministry with campuses in southwest Atlanta, midtown Atlanta, and an international mission site in the Central African Republic. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Jackson State University, his Master of Divinity from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, and his Doctor of Ministry from Duke University.
An insightful preacher, scholar, and social activist, Dr. Murriel’s research focuses on translating the methods of the Civil Rights Movement into modern strategies for social justice. In 2018, he was appointed by Dean Jan Love as Assistant Professor in the Practice of Practical Theology and Director of the Black Methodist Seminarian’s Program at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology.
Sonya Ross
MODERATOR
Adelle Banks
Adelle M. Banks is the projects editor and a national reporter for RNS, covering topics including religion and race, the faith of African Americans and partnerships between government and religious groups.
Banks joined RNS in 1995. She was previously the religion reporter at the Orlando Sentinel and a reporter at The Providence Journal and newspapers in the upstate New York communities of Syracuse and Binghamton.
She is the co-author of “Becoming a Future-Ready Church: 8 Shifts to Encourage and Empower the Next Generation of Leaders.”
Banks was honored in 2024 with the Religion News Association’s William A. Reed Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2023 at The Unsung She-Roes Awards: Centering and Celebrating Black Women in Ministry for outstanding media coverage. She received the Washington Association of Black Journalists’ inaugural lifetime achievement award in 2022.
A Mount Holyoke College graduate, Banks is the third-place winner of the 2021 Best In-depth Newswriting on Religion Award from the American Academy of Religion. She spearheaded RNS’ “Beyond the Most Segregated Hour” project, which won a 2021 Wilbur Award from the Religion Communicators Council, and an RNS project on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, which won a 2014 Wilbur Award.