Envisioning a World that Has Never Existed

“In every age, no matter how cruel the oppression carried on by those in power, there have been those who struggled for a different world. I believe this is the genius of humankind, the thing that makes us half divine: the fact that some human beings can envision a world that has never existed.”

~ Anne Braden (1924-2006), Louisville racial justice activist

Anne Braden was a local white advocate in the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and ‘60s. She and her husband Carl are most famous for purchasing a house in the then exclusively white neighborhood of Shively for a Black couple. Both Bradens were arrested as “Communists’ for their act and the house was dynamited after irate neighbors shot it up and burned a cross in the front yard. Anne was not deterred and continued the fight for the remaining fifty years of her life, founding a newspaper and several antiracist organizations.

Anne provides an excellent example of what it means to be a white ally in the struggle for justice, but this Advent, I would like to highlight the intense message of hope in her quote above. Seventy years ago, it was difficult to imagine a world without Jim Crow’s legalized segregation and dehumanization of Black Americans. Now, we might feel similar despair about changing the persistently racist institutions of our country. Yet, Anne reminds us that envisioning a world of justice is our particular human genius. It is the spark of God within us calling us to bring forth the Kingdom.

Questions

How might I be an ally in the fight for racial justice? What might a world without racism look like?

Prayer

Dear God, help us to believe in the words of the Civil Rights anthem that “we shall overcome one day.” Take away our fear and loneliness and make us all free. Help us to be courageous activists for a better world so that we might help to usher in your Kingdom.

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