Champion for Black Power & All the Oppressed: Dr. Cone, Founder of Black Liberation Theology, Dies

We look at the life and legacy of the founder of black liberation theology, Rev. Dr. James Cone. Starting in the 1960s, he argued for racial justice and interpreted the Christian gospel from the experience of the oppressed. He said he was inspired by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who gave black theology its Christian identity, and Malcolm X, who gave black theology its black identity. Dr. Cone died Saturday at age 79. We play excerpts of his speeches and speak with Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, president of Union Theological Seminary, where Dr. Cone taught for 50 years; Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, dean of the Episcopal Divinity School and professor at Union Theological Seminary and a former student of Dr. Cone; and another former student of Dr. Cone, Reverend Dr. Raphael Warnock, who serves as senior pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, which was the spiritual home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He is also the chair of the New Georgia Project, author of "The Divided Mind of the Black Church: Theology, Piety, and Public Witness," and on the board of Union Theological Seminary.