Telling the Truth in Black and White: Religion and Racial Injustice in the United States

Telling the Truth in Black and White: Religion and Racial Injustice in the United States
A conversation with Robert P. Jones and Angela Sims

The United States is reckoning with its racist past and present. Police violence against Black Americans has generated massive protests to end racial injustice and systematic inequality. The recent removal of Confederate statues and symbols, including in Arizona, reminds us of the nation’s longtime devotion to a cause rooted in white supremacy and enforced through slavery, segregation, lynching and other violence. To this day, Black Americans continue to experience ongoing injustices of redlining, housing discrimination, racial profiling, and unequal access to employment, education and health care.

In this moment of national introspection, we ask: what roles have religion played in America’s history of white domination and the struggle for racial justice? How has Christianity in particular provided theological foundations for white supremacy and anti-Black violence? How has it inspired efforts to combat racism and promote human equality? How do we reckon with religion’s racist sins while preserving its capacity to inspire hope, resist injustice and foster renewal?

Join us for panel discussion of these and other questions with Robert P. Jones and Angela Sims. 

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About the speakers: 

• Robert P. Jones is CEO and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). He is a leading scholar and commentator on religion, culture and politics and writes regularly for The Atlantic, NBC and other outlets. He is frequently featured in national media, such as CNN, MSNBC, NPR, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

He is the author of "White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity" and "The End of White Christian America". He also serves on the program committee of the American Academy of Religion.

• Angela Sims is the first female president of the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. A renowned womanist scholar and a member of the National Baptist denomination, her research and writing examines connections between faith, race and violence, with specific attention to historical and contemporary implications of lynching and a culture of lynching in the United States.

Sims is the author of "Lynched: The Power of Memory in a Culture of Terror", and co-author of several books, including "Religion-Political Narratives in the United States: From Martin Luther King, Jr. to Jeremiah Wright".

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Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict

csrc@asu.edu