Blacks say atheists were unseen civil rights heroes

Think of the civil rights movement and chances are the image that
comes to mind is of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. leading the 1963
March on Washington.

But few people think of A. Philip Randolph, a
labor organizer who originated the idea of the march and was at King's
side as he made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

Why is King, a
Christian, remembered by so many and Randolph, an atheist, by so few?
It's a question many African-American nontheists—atheists, humanists and
skeptics—were asking this last Black History Month. Some scholars and
activists call for a reexamination of the contributions of nontheists of
color to the civil rights movement and beyond.