Regardless of its actual existence, the phoenix mythology has endured across many cultures of the ancient world and remains an important symbol of the neverending cycle of life and death today.

I'd never had a white person talk to me like that,' Warren Stewart Sr. says, recalling the late Gov. Evan Mecham and the Arizona battle over MLK Day.

Pastor Warren Stewart Sr., who led the fight for a paid state MLK Day holiday, is retiring after nearly 50 years at the helm of his Phoenix church.

He is the longest-serving senior pastor in the history of a church that says it is the oldest African American Baptist church in Phoenix. "God be praised for inspiring me to unapologetically and ...