These stories and his own encounters with racism pushed him away from the “white man’s religion,” until he came to faith in college. Eric Mason, a black pastor from Philadelphia, recounts how he heard stories about Klan terrorism and racial hatred from his grandparents. Not only are these events preserved within the memories of people who are still alive, they live on in residential and school segregation, much of which can be attributed to now-illegal redlining practices that produced concentrated black urban poverty during the 1960s and 1970s.Īn understanding of history also helps us to better empathize with our black brothers and sisters in Christ. A black woman who was in my Bible study attended a segregated school as a child. For example, Ruby Bridges, who faced death threats as a six-year-old for being the first black child to attend her all-white elementary school in New Orleans, turned sixty-four last year. Knowledge of our racial history helps us to better understand the present, particularly given the historical proximity of some of the relevant time periods. Many may question why such a book is necessary, perhaps even suggesting that a discussion of America’s racial history is inherently divisive. Although commentary and interpretation is interspersed throughout the book, its presence becomes much more marked in Chapters 10 and 11, which discuss contemporary movements like Black Lives Matter and provide guidance for how evangelicals should pursue racial reconciliation. Historical events are intertwined with historical theology, as Christians attempted to justify or repudiate slaveholding and segregation. The first 9 chapters present an overview of race through the first four centuries of American history, beginning with the arrival of Africans in Jamestown, and continuing though the institution of chattel slavery, the Civil War, Black Codes, Jim Crow laws, the victories of the Civil Rights Movement, and the rise of the Religious Right during the 70s and 80s. The Color of Compromise can roughly be divided into two sections.

While this work is an important read for anyone concerned with racial justice and should provoke introspection and lament, it also merits careful evaluation in light of how it frames the discussion of racism and complicity. As the recipient of an MDiv from Reformed Theological Seminary and a PhD candidate in history at the University of Mississippi, Tisby is uniquely positioned to bring a Christian perspective to the discussion of America’s religious and racial history. Jemar Tisby’s recent book The Color of Compromise is a call to the American church to wrestle with its involvement in slavery, segregation, and racism.

The colour of compromise