REMEMBERING a veteran of hope: Rosemarie Freeney Harding

Rosemarie Freeney Harding, 73, died last week in Denver, Colorado, following complications from diabetes. Rosemarie was a former teacher and social worker in Chicago, a civil rights worker in Atlanta, Georgia, historian, counselor, and co-founder of The Veterans of Hope Project at Iliff School of Theology. With her husband, Dr. Vincent Harding, Rosemarie worked for more than 40 years in many of the major movements for democracy, justice, and reconciliation in the United States and around the world.

A few years ago I had the honor of interviewing Rosemarie. When I asked her where her life began she said, "It all started with my slave great-great-grandmother who they say was brought over as a young child from the West coast of Africa. We called her 'Mama Rye.' She lived to be over 100. In an article she wrote for a newspaper down in South Georgia, she said that while she was in slavery she prayed that all of her children's children's children's children would be blessed. Oh my, yes. I think we have been reaping those blessings."
Rose Marie Berg, Sojourners