Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America

Racial prejudice and discrimination against ethnic and racial groups has been an ongoing issue throughout the history of the United States. Discriminatory laws and social practices, including collective violence, have long disenfranchised and oppressed non-white Americans. In most aspects of sociopolitical life, white Americans have held privileges and rights, excluding members of other racial groups.

Slavery is a pivotal issue in the history of the United States. The forcible transportation of Africans in America during the colonial period resulted in the established enslavement of Black people primarily in the South, which lasted until the 19th century. Simultaneously, abolitionism, which advocated for the abolition of slavery, emerged as an American movement in the early 19th century. In 1863, during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, who was then president, issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This signaled freedom and the end of slavery for Black people. During Reconstruction, the period following the Civil War, slavery was officially abolished in the South and African Americans obtained constitutional rights.

From the late 19th to early 20th century, racial conflicts continued. Institutional racism promoted a series of anti-Black policies and practices. The disenfranchisement of African Americans resulted in the loss of the civil rights obtained during Reconstruction. The South legitimized racial discrimination with Jim Crow legislation, which made racial segregation legal. A long period of anti-Black violence followed, manifested in segregation, lynchings, economic exploitation, and the expression of white supremacy through extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Black people began to migrate to Northern cities with hopes of freedom in a period known as the Great Migration, but still faced discrimination.

The galvanizing of African Americans as a community against racial inequality led to the emergence of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Characterized by nonviolent acts of civil disobedience, mass protests and marches, the movement challenged white supremacy and demanded equality in education, jobs, and voting rights. American activist and minister Martin Luther King Jr. was an emblematic leader and organizer of the movement. The 1963 March in Washington is a key event in the history of civil rights. Americans of all races gathered to peacefully protest for equality, and King gave his emblematic “I Have a Dream” speech. Malcolm X, a key representative of Black nationalism, was also a significant civil rights figure. African American women played a crucial role in the movement’s evolution; they led advocacy for human rights, exemplified grassroots activism, and battled gender discrimination from within. Prominent female figures of the movement include Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hammer, and Ella Baker. A series of civil right acts followed during the late 1950s and the 1960s, securing voting rights and prohibiting discrimination based on race, gender or ethnicity.

Social upheaval continued throughout the 1960s, with incidents of police brutality leading to nationwide race riots. The assassinations of Malcolm X in 1965 and of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 signaled a turning point in the movement’s history. In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, the Black Power Movement gained momentum, emphasizing class struggles, self-determination for African Americans, and Black ethnic identity. The movement supported militant activism against racial violence and sought to empower Black communities.

The Black Panther Party founded in 1966 was a key political organization that championed Black nationalism. Even though the Black Panthers painted a masculine image of the movement, the role of Black women remained crucial. The activism of Black women in the period emphasized the intersection of race and gender in African American oppression and challenged the movement’s gender dynamics, developing Black feminist politics. Key female figures included Angela Davis and Kathleen Cleaver.

Racial struggle and racism remain crucial issues in American society. The civil rights movement and black power movement still impact sociopolitical debates on race. Their legacy has influenced the Black Lives Matter movement, which emerged in 2013 in response to police brutality against African Americans. The movement seeks to eliminate white supremacy and centers on Black people across the globe. Black Lives Matter continues to underscore institutional racism and injustice against Black people.