Faith For Justice

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In Defense of Black Life

Michelle Higgins

Faith for Justice stands in support of the recent Uprisings against police murder. We support both the local demands of St. Louis organizers, and the global demands of the Movement for Black Lives.

Here, our leadership team reads the demands and affirms their intents as integral to the work of protest as spiritual practice. We offer two types of practical advice, what to take in and learn, then what to do and express outwardly. We hope that this is a help to communities of Christians who are supportive of the national call to #DefundPolice and #ProtectBlackFutures in defense of Black lives.

June 1st, 2020. A week after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, St. Louis organizers held a protest march from the City Justice Center to the Arch grounds, and shared this Five Point Plan for Our Future, which they made clear would act as the local demands in support of the national uprisings. 

Local Demands

Defund the Police

Policing has failed while police budgets have steadily increased. It’s time for this unjust windfall to end

Disarm, Decommission, and Dismiss the Police

End the routine practice of police officers bearing fatal weaponry. Remove policing authority from any officer with past instances of excessive force. Fire officers who kill or cause serious injury.

CLOSE THE WORKHOUSE - on repeat.

The workhouse, the local Medium Security Institution, is a racist policy failure, an institution that enables the mass criminalization and incarceration of poor Black people. Its immediate closure is a necessary step toward re-envisioning public safety as community wellbeing

Free Political Prisoners

There are people in our jails and prisons, and under other forms of state control, because they treated systemic racism as the plague that it is. Let them go free.

Make Reparations

North St. Louis City and County, and parts of South St. Louis City, have been devastated by decades of harm and neglect. The money the city has wasted on police and jails will fund our regrowth. 

To support the organizations who authored these demands, follow and invest in Action St. Louis, ArchCity Defenders, The Bail Project-STL, Expect Us, Metropolitan Congregations United

The Movement for Black Lives is a coalition of over 100 organizations based in local Black liberation work. Five new demands based on the Vision for Black Lives, our north star, were launched on June 1st for a Week of Action. Each demand is attached to actionables and teaching tools for the corresponding day. Stay tuned for more action steps from the movement.

https://m4bl.org/week-of-action/

GLOBAL DEMANDS

We demand the rights of protesters be respected.

Violations of property should never be equated with the violation of human life. We demand that local and state officials ensure that there are no abuse of powers, no use of lethal force on protestors. Learn more and take action on this demand. https://m4bl.org/week-of-action/monday/

We demand divestment from police AND investment in Black communities

We call on localities and elected officials across the country to divest resources away from policing in local budgets and reallocate those resources to the healthcare, housing and education our people deserve. Learn more and take action on this demand. https://m4bl.org/week-of-action/tuesday/

We demand immediate relief for our communities

We demand the federal government provide direct cash payments, rent cancellation, mortgage cancellation, a moratorium on utility and water shutoffs and a cancellation of student, medical and other forms of debt. Learn more and take action on this demand. https://m4bl.org/week-of-action/wednesday/

We demand community control

The most impacted in our communities need to control the laws, institutions, and policies that are meant to serve us – from our schools to our local budgets, economies, and police department.Learn more and take action on this demand. https://m4bl.org/week-of-action/thursday/

We demand an end to the war against Black people

We demand an end to the criminalization, incarceration, and killing of our people. We call for not just individual accountability of officers after a murder, but entire police departments. Learn more and take action on this demand. https://m4bl.org/week-of-action/friday/

WATCH: Webinar from M4BL Making Meaning of this Moment


Cities across the country have erupted in protest and many are in flames. The horrific and violent murders of George Floyd, Nina Pop, Breanna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmuad Arbery, and Dreason Reed are calls for a radical reimagining of the world we live in. The compounding crisis of COVID-19 and increased police brutality speaks to the interconnected nature of white supremacy, racial capitalism, and the role of state sanctioned violence on the people of God. Even more in this season, we listen to the voices of strategists, organizers, and legendary thinkers as they forge the path toward liberation. Please watch this amazing town hall discussing a nationwide strategy to harness our collective power for structural and fundamental change in defense of Black lives. 

photo by Jacob Gee

Resources and Action Steps 

Recommended items to learn and do associated with every demand

  • Join a local organization that is consistently doing advocacy and justice work as aligns with the demands above. We cannot stress this enough. JOIN A TEAM. You and your faith communities will end up creating programs and strategies that are redundant, and you will mark yourself as apathetic to the vital local work rather than in support of it.

Defund the Police, Disarm, Decommission and Dismantle the Police

Learn

Do

  • Look up your local city or county budget and identify how much money goes to policing vs. other resources for improving public safety. If you have the skills, consider making a graphic to share the discrepancy on social media.

  • Call your elected representative and ask what they are doing to invest in methods of public safety beyond policing

  • Volunteer at an organization that interrupts violence or provides resource for public safety that are not through policing (for example, a domestic violence shelter, mental health organization, or sexual assault crisis hotline).

  • Show up at the next city council meeting and sign up to ask questions about the police budget

Close the Workhouse

Learn

Do

  • Ask your political representative to support closing the workhouse

  • Call up organizations that support “lower taxes” or “balanced budgets” (whether you agree with their specific goals or not) and ask whether they are actively supporting closing the Workhouse, which costs taxpayers $16M to operate annually

  • Support efforts that will end cash bail, stop the city from accepting Federal detainees to justify the existence of the Workhouse, and decriminalize drug and other non-violent offences

  • Volunteer with Close the Workhouse or The Bail Project 

Free Political Prisoners

Learn

Do

  • Vote for and support efforts to decriminalize drug offenses, which are part of the disastrous and politically motivated ‘war-on-drugs’, as well as sex work and non-violent offences

  • Write a letter to the parole board to support freeing Josh Williams or send books or money to his account https://www.freejoshwilliams.com/freejosh

  • Write letters and ask how you can send funds to political prisoners https://afgj.org/politicalprisonersusa

Make Reparations 

Learn

Do

  • Support bills and legislation to provide reparations to both black and Native people

  • Give money (without demanding control or power) to black churches, nonprofits run by black leaders, and 

  • Purchase from black businesses and hire black entrepreneurs 

  • Make sure your organizations are paying fair, livable wages to people of color (including those who are not in leadership roles) 

  • Demand that organizations you work for pay people of color for their work and do not rely on black and brown “volunteers” to complete important work when they have budgets to pay white leaders or others in positions of power

  • Research the land you live on, work on, and worship on, acknowledge the history of the people it was stolen from and make reparations directly to those nations

  • Ask your church to consider tithing or donating a portion of their offerings (without demanding control or power) to black and brown-led churches in economically oppressed areas.

Protecting the Right to Protest

Learn

  • Memorize the ACLU Know Your Rights top issues. Focus on the rights of protesters and make sure you are aware of what to do when faced with arrest, or when simply threatened because police are not respecting your right to demonstrate https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/

  • Save this toolkit and WATCH THE WEBINAR about Protest Readiness: DA Training Link

  • Be careful with the materials produced by news organizations, some of which misinterpret or misreport the reality on the ground, consider watching a livestream of protests instead

Do

COVID-19 Relief for Black and Brown, Native and Working Class Communities

Learn

  • Listen to experts in public health and epidemiology

Do

  • Support the Medicaid Expansion bill that will be voted on in Missouri in August and support proposals that expand medical care for all people (for example, Medicare for All proposals)

  • Support efforts to allow people to vote by mail for any reason, currently Missouri is only allowing voters at “high-risk” of contracting coronavirus to use that as a reason for absentee voting and is only allowing that for the remainder of 2020

  • Give to local mutual aid funds

  • PLEASE do not forget to continue to check your own health before you join a protest. DO NOT bring health risks to your freedom fighting neighbors by not taking care of yourself. Take your temperature each day, stay hydrated, notice symptoms, get tested!

  • Volunteer to work at a resource center in your area, collect donations of essential items

  • Pair with a family and provide childcare for essential workers in their household

  • If you are at risk or are showing symptoms (but are healthy enough to support the Movement), consider supporting the movement from home through letter writing, attending public meetings via Zoom, and other activist work 

Community Control - Self-Determination and Community Well-being as Public Safety

Learn

  • From Max Remaux of Next System Project: An in depth, academic proposition for community control over the presence of police

https://thenextsystem.org/learn/stories/community-control-over-police-proposition

Do

  • STOP calling the police. This sounds dangerous but it is serious. Do not call the police unless you must have an accident/incident report for insurance purposes.

  • Talk to your friends and family about why we all have to stop calling the police

  • Encourage your faith communities to stop making heroes of police and do not watch media, like Cops or Live PD, that creates a false narrative of policing

  • STOP your communities from living like the police represent goodness. For instance, playing cops and robbers with kids. Do not role play with the police as “good guys”.

  • Build a “we keep us safe” neighborhood trust program. Know all your neighbors and build relationships with them. If there are police living in your neighborhood tell them you expect them to support the reduction of patrol and control in your area. 

  • Set up a trust system for people who need to talk about addiction or suffering domestic abuse. Partner with local churches to support relocation, rescue and survival programs.

  • Love on young people. Create and fund programs that center the education and success of children, youth, and young adults.

An End to the Global War Against Black People

Learn

-National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Statement on Racial Bias- http://www.ncadp.org/pages/racial-bias

-The Bail Project- After Cash Bail: A Framework for Reimagining PreTrial Justice https://bailproject.org/after-cash-bail/

-Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools TV Special- https://www.pbs.org/show/pushout-criminalization-black-girls-schools/

- Read about and implement the myriad ways to support Black LIFE

https://creative-capital.org/2020/06/03/resources-ways-to-support-black-lives-matter/

Do

  • Commit to the call to #DefendBlackLife. Follow and donate to the Movement for Black Lives M4BL.org // Sign the Color of Change Platform https://act.colorofchange.org/signup/state-emergency-black-people-are-dying

  • Support Black organizers leadership at protests 

  • Guard against misinformation, check the source and purpose of EVERY action alert and protest invite you see. If you feel unsure, ask for more info on the organizers. Correct your friends and networks privately when they share info that is not based in fact.

  • Shop Black owned and share your favorite Black owned businesses

  • Fight for increased representation in every work sector where you have influence or interest

  • Encourage your faith community to Defend Black Life. Read Black authors for Christian education. Teach the truth about the ethnic landscape of the Bible, kill white Jesus. Acknowledge that nationalist supremacist Christianity is evil, AND is widespread through the church.

  • Raise money and support the mental health of Black people https://www.self.com/story/black-mental-health-resources

  • Hire Faith for Justice, Missouri Faith Voices, Freedom Arts & Education Center or other facilitators to do an assessment of your faith organization or build curriculum for creative ways to center justice and teach inclusion

Overall, remember that this work is broad. Educational justice, housing justice, health and environmental justice all include critical elements in defense of Black life. Find a spiritual home and a political home that amplifies your gifts and trains you in the energy and grace that it takes to stay in the fight, to remain grounded in deep abiding love. 

Disclosure: The executive director of Faith for Justice, Rev. Michelle Higgins, is co-founder of Action St. Louis. Michelle also serves the operations team of the Electoral Justice Project, the political pillar of M4BL.