Black Faith Has Always Reconstructed The World
Spirit will always find us, even in the middle of what seems like a spiritual wilderness. Times feel chaotic right now, but amidst chaos is where we reimagine – reconstruct – a new world. Our ancestors did this time and again. Like them, we can trust Spirit to guide us through the wilderness.
“The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness.” – Jeremiah 31:2.
As the dust settled from the Civil War our ancestors found themselves cast into a spiritual wilderness. Anti-Black historians would have us believe that Reconstruction was an era of corruption and political failure, but this erases the Black political transformations of the time.
From 1865 to 1877, over 2,000 Black officeholders were elected, including two United States senators and 21 representatives.
The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were passed, the first amendments to give our ancestors any legal rights.
As our ancestors gained political standing, white supremacist groups like the KKK formed. Jim Crow Laws governed the South, with Black voter intimidation and lynchings on the rise.
Reflecting on Reconstruction, W.E.B. Du Bois wrote, “The slave went free; stood for a brief moment in the sun; and then moved back again toward slavery.”
The end of Reconstruction was another point in history in which our ancestors entered the “wilderness” mentioned in Jeremiah 31:2. But they leaned into the faith despite the very real dangers they faced.
As we enter uncertain and ever-increasing anti-Black political times, we must remember that when faced with similar threats, our ancestors always found a way out of the wilderness.
We will, too.
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