What Would America Look Like If There Was No Such Thing as the Struggle for Peace and Justice? A Few Thoughts.

America is a democracy because Black people demanded it.

In a recent series I called Crucial Conversations: Important Issues for Black Faith, I talked about four issues I feel are endemic to the African American context of faith and culture: mental health, suicide ideation, domestic violence and faith and politics. The fourth topic, faith and politics, spurred me to pose a question germane to the entire argument of whether Black Christians can ever afford to “sit out” politics: What would America look like if there was no struggle for peace and justice?

I pondered this question at length and, even after the conclusion of the four-part series, it haunted me as both an intriguing question and one which demands some type of response. I at first sought to answer it on my own merits, without the aid of a commentary or online source.

If the struggle for peace and justice - beginning with the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in 1619 (according to Nicole Hannah-Jones of the 1619 Project, whom I relied on heavily) had not happened, what would America look like present day? I reasoned the following:

·         Slavery would still exist

·         We would be unable to vote

·         There would be no equal rights

·         Black people would have no legal standing

·         Redlining would go unchallenged

·         Infant mortality rates would still be high

·         We’d have zero access to education

·         The Black middle class would not exist

·         Health disparities would go unaddressed

·         Lynching would still be happening

·         The armed forces would be segregated

·         It would still be illegal for Blacks to marry

·         It would still be illegal for Blacks to learn to read and write

That list is no way exhaustive.

So, then I posed the question to CHATGPT:

·         Without this struggle (peace and justice), many of the legal and social protections we take for granted—such as the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, and protections against racial discrimination—might not exist. 

·         Without such activism, segregation, disenfranchisement, and racial terror could have persisted far longer.

·         If there were no struggle, the political order might have been shaped more by entrenched power structures and less by public demands for equity. Movements like the Black Freedom Struggle and modern abolitionist efforts have challenged not only laws but also the very systems that perpetuate harm.

·         Even today, the struggle for justice addresses issues like police brutality, economic inequality, and environmental justice. Without continued activism, these issues might be addressed only superficially, leaving systemic problems unresolved

CHATGPT was obviously more nuanced, but I wanted more.

So, I went to Nicole Hannah-Jones, the investigative journalist known for her coverage of civil rights in the United States.  In 2019, Hannah-Jones launched a project to fundamentally change the way slavery in the United States was viewed, timed for the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Virginia. Hannah-Jones produced a series of articles for a special issue in The New York Times Magazine entitled The 1619 Project.

Hannah-Jones’ premise is eloquently penned not too far into an article, America Wasn’t a Democracy, Until Black People Made It One, penned for the series:

“… it would be historically inaccurate to reduce the contributions of black people to the vast material wealth created by our bondage. Black Americans have also been, and continue to be, foundational to the idea of American freedom. More than any other group in this country’s history, we have served, generation after generation, in an overlooked but vital role: It is we who have been the perfecters of this democracy.”

There would be no American democracy if it weren’t for Black Americans.

In Let America Be America Again, Langston Hughes writes:

Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain. Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

The parenthetical stanza vividly explained Hughes’ reticence in embracing fully his American experience.

Finally, I went to Scripture. Why? Because all three major religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism) cite peace and justice as a major tenet.

Micah 6:8 sets the standard: God requires justice, mercy, and humility. Withholding justice is a rejection of His will.

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

The Bible portrays the pursuit of peace and justice as consistent with God’s character. Scripture references this divine character to no end:

·         “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” (Isaiah 1:17)

·         “Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.” (Psalm 82:3)

·         “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (Matthew 5:9)

·         “Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do not wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow…” (Jeremiah 22:3)

·         “Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.” (James 3:18)

Micah reminds of the Lord’s rebuke when the scales of justice are unbalanced. Matthew Henry Commentary says:

“Take notice the Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel, will plead by his prophets, plead by his providences, to make good his charge.” 

What is the source of God’s controversy with his people then as well as now? Ingratitude and injustice. Two of the worst attributes a believer can possess. When you think about it, one cannot exist without the other; they are inextricably connected. When we are missing gratitude, it mutes our sense of compassion for others. When we lack compassion for others, our sense of gratitude retards.

When we “know” gratitude, we know justice, because we remember our former state.

God has brought us from “ghettos” to “get more”; from “cotton shacks to Cadillacs”. Surely then, our remembrance of His past mercies will readily lead us to help the plight of others.

Matthew Henry: “There is something which God requires we should do for him and devote to him; and it is good. It is good in itself; there is an innate goodness in moral duties, antecedent to the command; they are not, as ceremonial observances, good because they are commanded, but commanded because they are good…” 

Justice is not good because it is commanded, justice is commanded because it is good. Micah exhorts us to do three simple things:

We must do justly. We must render to all their due, according as our relation and obligation to them are; we must do wrong to none but do right to all, in their bodies, goods, and good name.

We must love mercy. We must delight in it, as our God does, must be glad of an opportunity to do good, and do it cheerfully. Justice is put before mercy, for we must not give that in alms which is wrongfully got, or with which our debts should be paid. God hates robbery for a burnt offering.

We must walk humbly with God. Every thought within us must be brought down, to be brought into obedience to God. This is the true sign of humility. h

Justice and mercy. These are the authentic signs of a beloved community, one which exemplifies the attributes of the kingdom. We do justice because justice is good. We demand justice because justice is good. God is good because justice is good. Justice is good because God is good. And by his created order, good prevails.

Finally, the democracy that Black people in America inaugurated has been the precursor to the rights of other marginalized groups in America. Writes Hannah-Jones:

“During this nation’s brief period of Reconstruction, from 1865 to 1877, formerly enslaved people zealously engaged with the democratic process. With federal troops tempering widespread white violence, black Southerners started branches of the Equal Rights League — one of the nation’s first human rights organizations — to fight discrimination and organize voters…”

If Black Americans had not demanded their “inalienable” right to the pursuit of happiness and the securing of dignity:

Women’s rights to, among other things, vote would not have been enshrined by the 19^th Amendment.

There would not have been a push for gay rights.

Immigration rights, at the epicenter of our political firestorm, would never been seen as grounds for collective action.

Disability rights, ensconced by the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, would not have advanced were it not for the struggle for peace and justice initiated by Black Americans.

Marginalized groups notwithstanding, the Black struggle for liberation’s greatest contribution is succinctly stated by Hannah-Jones, which, ironically, is the savant of an unsuspecting reality:

“Perhaps their biggest achievement was the establishment of that most democratic of American institutions: the public school. Public education effectively did not exist in the South before Reconstruction. The white elite sent their children to private schools, while poor white children went without an education.”

America wasn’t a democracy, until Black people made it one.

Jubilee and Justice, a social advocacy arm of Pastor W. Eric Croomes Ministries committed to ensuring equity in education. “Education is a public good.” 

What are your thoughts? Email me at info@pastorwericcroomes.com