This book examines a group of black Christian intellectuals and activists who looked abroad, even in other religious traditions, for ideas and practices that could transform American democracy. From the 1930s to the 1950s, this network of intellectuals and activists drew lessons from independence movements around the world for an American campaign that would be part of a global network of resistance to colonialism and white supremacy. This book argues that their religious perspectives and methods of moral reasoning developed theological blueprints for the later civil rights movement. The book analyzes groundbreaking work of individual intellectuals and activists and reveals collaborations among them, including Howard Thurman, Benjamin Mays, and William Stuart Nelson; pioneers of African American Christian nonviolence James Farmer, Pauli Murray, and Bayard Rustin; and YWCA leaders Juliette Derricotte and Sue Bailey Thurman. The book traces the ways these fertile intersections of worldwide resistance movements, American racial politics, and interreligious exchanges that crossed literal borders and disciplinary boundaries can enrich our understanding of the international roots of the civil rights movement and offer object lessons on the role of religion in justice movements.