Book Review: The Spirit of Justice: True Stories of Faith, Race, and Resistance
by Jemar Tisby
In this book Jemar Tisby provides a special inside look into the historical and personal experiences of African Americans that is not always included in other accounts of the people and events covered. Additional personal perspectives are presented of those in the abolitionist movement through Harriet Tubman and Robert Smalls through Civil Rights martyrs such as Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King and through to the 21st Century. For those already familiar with these events and people, Tisby further brings them alive as persons and not just as academic accounts in history.
Tisby deliberately highlights and emphasizes the spiritual aspects of the people he chronicles as central to their motivation and actions—everyone may relax on that point as Tisby does not proselytize. The spiritual aspects of the persons and events presented may be considered objectively central to the theme of the book, the title of which implies “spiritual” in the religious (especially Christian) sense. This perspective provides a view into the Black church and its joining of faith and justice into an essential whole of life’s meaning that those outside that tradition may not have encountered previously.
The “spirit” of justice as presented by Tisby is therefore a necessary precondition for the actual accomplishment of justice. This is not at all limited to a Black and white binary viewpoint. Tisby lists several organizations across racial and cultural boundaries that are working toward practical justice with a spiritual motivation—among those mentioned are Vote Common Good, Faithful America, and the Jude 3 Project. These are all active 21st Century efforts by people who are fully aware of the obstacles in front of them and the need to resist evil in its contemporary forms.
Tisby suggests that the four common traits of the persons described in this book are Faith, Courage, Imagination, and Resilience. These traits are essential to right the ship in our own era. The impetus for injustice has a long history, starting with the Doctrine of Discovery through the convoluted justifications for slavery through embedded echoes of the Roman Empire throughout Christendom today that have precious little to do with the Nazarene. As the world spirals deeper into Fascism and oligarchic dominance, the spirit of justice may be an essential foundation from which to counter the rampant disinformation that society is marinated in. Let us claim it for sustainment and action.