Our History
Religious socialism has played an outsized role in the history of social movements in our country, but few people know the full story. Learn about some of the biggest moments in religious socialism history here.
17th Century
English colonists found Jamestown in Virginia, initiating violent, ongoing disruption of indigenous peoples' cooperative way of life and spiritual connection with the land
First African slaves arrive in Virginia colony
19th Century
Spiritual socialist Robert Owen founds a cooperative community in Indiana called New Harmony
Hermann Cohen, one of the most important Jewish philosophers of the 19th century, whose works articulated a spiritual and moral vision for Judaism that transcended the aims of Zionism, is born
Vincent Calabrese
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish the Communist Manifesto in London
The Editorial Team
Civil war erupts in the United States over the institution of slavery
On June 19th, the Emancipation Proclamation is finally enforced in Texas, two and a half years after it was issued, and enslaved people in Galveston are informed of their freedom
United Hebrew Trades forms to protect Jewish workers in New York
20th Century
Dorothy Day co-founds the Catholic Worker movement
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
Fran Quigley
Malcolm X lobbies eight African nations to bring charges against the United States for its violation of the human rights of Black people before being assassinated in 1965
Sirad Hassan, Samy Amkieh and Abdelhamid Arbab
Methodist minister and theologian James Cone writes A Black Theology of Liberation
The Editorial Team
Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez publishes A Theology of Liberation
John Cort helps found the DSOC Religion and Socialism Commission in Chicago
Archbishop Oscar Romero assassinated for opposing US Empire in El Salvador
Kevin C Molloy
Democratic Socialists of America founded by a merging of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) and the New American Movement (NAM)
21st Century
Bernie Sanders' first presidential run kicks off a socialist revival in the United States
John W. Adams
The Poor People's Campaign, a revival of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Poor People's March on Washington, leads 40 days of coordinated action against racism, poverty, and militarism
Protests erupt across the country after the state-sanctioned murder of George Floyd, demanding a reckoning with America's history of racial terror
Fran Quigley
Christian nationalists on the Supreme Court vote to overturn Roe v. Wade after a 50-year campaign to use abortion to protect white supremacy