The Muste Foundation provides grants, sponsorships, and educational resources to hundreds of grassroots projects around the world. We fund innovative organizing, often with seed funds that give a necessary boost to bold ideas. We also provide affordable and collaborative space to groups in New York City.
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Muste was a central (yet largely unknown) figure who introduced a young college student and seminarian named Martin Luther King, Jr. to the notion of nonviolent activism and, by doing so, changed him and, through him, the entire country.
When Muste first presented his views to King, the two men fell into a “pretty heated argument,” before King could agree. A.J., not Gandhi, was the first to influence King in his turn toward nonviolence.
Muste was a deep and tough thinker. He believed that when disparate groups learned to work together they could influence social change. He was a tireless organizer who built coalitions and could bring those groups together like no other.
This has been reflected in the A.J. Muste Foundation's support for the underpinnings of diverse grassroots campaigns – not just to end the death penalty, but to oppose militarism, defend the environment, confront racism, and build social justice. For Muste, and for the Muste Foundation, activism from the ground up is the fundamental key to organizing movements that can make social change into a reality.
Political dissent is never easy – it wasn't in the 1940's when Muste was debating with Martin Luther King; nor is it easy now.
But it is necessary.