An Exploration of Lesser-Known Stories
A Feature Review of
The Spirit of Justice: True Stories of Faith, Race, and Resistance
Jemar Tisby
Hardcover: Zondervan Reflective, 2024
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Reviewed by Ann Byle
Jemar Tisby, author of the New York Times bestselling The Color of Compromise, continues his exploration of the roots and results of racism in his newest book, The Spirit of Justice. His penchant for exploring the depths of a thing comes to the forefront in this deep dive into what he describes as “a relentless drive in human beings, both inward and transcendent that demands dignity and propels our progress—it is the spirit of justice”(4).
He asks these valuable questions: “What manner of people are those who courageously confront racism instead of being complicit with it? And what can we learn from their example, their suffering, their methods, and their hope?”(4)
Tisby’s answers to those questions comprise The Spirit of Justice. Yet he also moves beyond resistance to “resistance to the resistance. It’s about the backlash—some would call it ‘whitelash’—that occurs every time a movement for racial justice takes place”(13).
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Beginning with the first non-Native Americans to set foot on what would become the United States, Tisby focuses primarily on the beliefs and actions of Black Christians. From the first Black slaves arriving in 1619 to Myrlie Evers-Williams in her 90s still speaking out against racism today, Tisby offers both history and spirituality in the same space.
One of the most interesting aspects of the book is how Tisby traces the rise of racism as it emerged over time. A surprisingly short time, it seems. From 1619 to the mid-1600s, “the status of people of African descent had already begun to harden into an oppressed racial class,” according to Tisby. Yet individuals from the earliest days of Black presence in America stood up for themselves and their brothers and sisters.
Tisby studies the history of the United States as often as he studies the people who defied the creation and perpetuation of slavery. He looks at the creation of the Declaration of Independence, which had originally contained tough statements against slavery that were taken out due to pressure from the southern states’ delegates, to the American Revolution and its demand for liberty which, sadly, didn’t extend to Black people.
As Tisby explores Revolution-era history, he also explores the Black people whose strong faith propelled action: poets Jupiter Hammon and Phillis Wheatley, advocates Benjamin Banneker and Prince Hall. He also explores larger arenas such as the Methodist and Quaker anti-slavery movements during the Revolutionary era.
The book moves through history chronologically as it explores those who stood against slavery: the pre-Civil War anti-slavery movement spearheaded by Frederick Douglass and backed by his wife Anna Murray Douglass, plus Paul Cuffe’s “Back to Africa Movement; Harriet Tubman and Elizabeth Keckley during the Civil War era; and the post-war era of creating black institutions such Elias Camp Morris and the National Baptist Convention and William J. Simmons and the Kentucky Normal and Theological Institute.
While the Emancipation Proclamation may have abolished slavery, the Jim Crow era kept Black people oppressed and without the basic rights of whites. Enter Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights movement, for which Tisby “captures a more detailed portrait of a major historical figure in the Black freedom struggle by focusing on lesser-known stories from his life”(131). He names this chapter “Beyond the Quotable King,” moving past the famous phrases such as “I have a dream” to explore King’s vision for expanded opportunities for Black people and economic considerations.
Especially necessary is Tisby’s exploration of key women in the Black freedom movement, women such as Coretta Scott King, Ella Baker, Ruby Dee, and Dorothy Height. “The civil rights movement,” he said, “simply would not have happened if not for Black women who tapped into the spirit of justice for the progress of their people and the nation”(177). He also focuses on Shirley Chisholm and Evers-Williams in the Black power era, and Amanda Tyler of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religion Liberty, plus authors Latasha Morrison and Brenda Salter McNeil, who are working today for racial justice.
Readers at first glance may think The Spirit of Justice is a compilation of profiles of prominent people in the fight for racial justice. Instead, it is so much more, offering readers a survey of American history from its founding to today focused on the fight for racial liberation and its ties to the Christian faith. His writing is clear and his research prodigious; readers will have to pay attention to get the full effect of what Tisby accomplishes in his newest book.
From its earliest incarnations, faith played a key role in individual actions and larger movements in the history of the Black struggle for freedom. Tisby explores that role in depth through his focus on little-known heroes of the movement as well as well-known voices, all of whom based their actions on their faith in the God of the Bible. What he calls “the spirit of justice.”
“The same spirit of justice that empowered generations past is available to you today. It has been there for people across time whenever they needed it,” he says in his final statement in The Spirit of Justice. “…Listen intently to the sound of your soul and the echoes of your ancestors. Listen closely enough and you will hear a still, small voice encouraging you to declare your dignity and stand up for righteousness. The spirit of justice still speaks” (232).
The Spirit of Justice will speak, too, to readers eager to go deeper into the Black freedom movement and to find that spirit of justice in themselves.
Ann Byle
Ann Byle lives in West Michigan with her science teacher husband, Ray. Their young adult children are in and out regularly. Ann writes for Christianity Today and Publishers Weekly, among other publications, and is author of Chicken Scratch: Lessons on Living Creatively from a Flock of Hens.
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