theologian, was born in Fordyce, Arkansas, the son of Charles “Charlie” Madison Cone, a woodcutter, and Lucy Cone. Cone was the youngest of three children. When Cone was just a year old his family moved to Beardon, Arkansas, a rural town of roughly 800 whites and 400 blacks. He only achieved a sixth grade education, but his natural intelligence and courage led him to later challenge racial segregation, a lifetime commitment to racial justice that included his participation in a school desegregation case and his opposition to racial coercion in the Jim Crow South.
Cone s early education took place in segregated schools that often employed teachers without college degrees What they lacked in formal training however Cone s teachers made up for in life affirming qualities He recalls that his first grade teacher often hugged him making him feel loved Cone did not know what it meant ...
