Faith Is Believing Our Fight For Freedom Isn’t In Vain

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching.” – 2 Timothy 3:16. 

As a child in Georgia, Susie King Taylor attended a secret school for enslaved children run by Black women. Taylor took her studies seriously, later risking her life to teach other enslaved people how to read. 

As the Civil War raged, she took the opportunity to escape her plantation and take refuge behind Union lines on South Carolina’s St. Simon’s Island. 

She then became the first Black army nurse, stationed with the First South Carolina Volunteers, one of the first Black regiments to fight in the Civil War. Knowing that literacy could be a matter of life and death, Taylor secretly taught reading and writing to the members of the regiment. But then her superiors found out.

Instead of ordering Taylor to stop, the Union officers asked her to continue teaching the men in the regiment and even their children. Then they purchased all the teaching materials that Taylor needed. 

In 1902, Taylor published a memoir on her time as a Civil War nurse. She admitted that as the years passed and Black people, although legally free, were still victims of violence and oppression, she had to wonder, “Was the  war in vain?” 

Sometimes when our faith feels shaky we might find ourselves wondering if our fight for Black liberation is in vain.

When our work for Black liberation feels futile, we must have faith that our continuing to show up and serve our community helps Spirit keep guiding us forward.