The Spirit of Justice: True Stories of Faith, Race, and Resistance

Activism involves actions that purposely and directly challenge injustice to change opinions, policies, and practices.

“As one of the few totally black controlled and independent institutions, black churches played a major role in resistance.”3 The Black church itself is, in many ways, a direct response to the racism embedded in many sectors of predominantly white Christian traditions that arose in the United States.

historical appropriation is most tempting to those whose political, theological, and economic lineage not only ignored racial justice but actively supported racist beliefs and actions.

“But it’s something about the spirit of justice that raises up like a war horse. That horse that stands with its back sunk in and hears that bell—I like to say the ‘bell of freedom.’ And all of a sudden, it becomes straight, and the back becomes stiff. And you become determined all over again.”

“I see something today that I had hoped I would never see again. That is prejudice, hatred, negativism that comes from the highest points across America,” she told us. Then, with the candor that comes with old age, she said, “And I found myself asking Medgar in the conversations that I have with him: Is this really what’s happening again in this co

“It is not the mere presence of black people that is the problem. . . . It is blackness that refuses to accept subjugation, to give up,”

“He remembers that with each modest advance the white population promptly raises the argument that the Negro has come far enough. Each step forward accents an ever-present tendency to backlash.”

There is a relentless drive in human beings, both inward and transcendent, that demands dignity and propels our progress—it is the spirit of justice. It is the conviction to continue the struggle no matter the odds or the obstacles. It is the heartbeat of people who hunger and thirst for righteousness. It will not concede. It will not let the evil

Historical appropriation occurs when you celebrate John Newton’s redemption arc of moving from slave-ship captain to abolitionist and yet refuse to emulate his public support of racially progressive policies.