I've long believed that the answer to racial injustice lies in increased education and economic opportunity. Notably, after his string of initial successes, Martin Luther King Jr. began shifting his strategy to advocate for the poor as a means of civil rights redress - but his work was cut short by his untimely death.

Now some 50 years later, cities around the United States that are still dealing with the aftermath of the economic crisis of 2008 are considering some of the then-groundbreaking ideas MLK championed. Indeed, they are late to the game - Canada and a number of European cities have already been experimenting with universal basic income (cash grants to low-income families with no strings attached).

Read more about how Stockton, California is starting one of the first, and arguably largest universal basic income programs in the United States.