Although black people have participated in the U.S. military since the 18th century and continue to do so, numerous black Americans through the years have raised their voices to condemn U.S. militarism as contrary to the goal of justice. They recognized that the United States' wars and preparations for war have had a profound impact on the lives and liberation struggles of people of color, both in this country and around the world. Those critical voices are now growing in number among groups of black Christians, as well as among secular activists.
In the black community, questions of peace and resistance to militarism have almost always centered on the injustices in American society. Thomas Van Rensselaer, a black abolitionist, wrote in 1841, "Let it be understood from one end of the country to another that we will never again take up arms in defence of this country unless all of the institutions are thrown open to us on equal terms." More than 100 years later, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) raised a similar point in its January, 1966 statement protesting the Vietnam War: "We support the men ... who are unwilling to respond to the military draft which would compel them to contribute their lives to U.S. aggression in the name of the 'freedom' we find so false in this country."
Other black people, including Frederick Douglass, A. Philip Randolph, Paul Robeson, W.E.B. Du Bois, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr., have denounced U.S. military and foreign policies and exposed the links between those policies and racism, economic exploitation, and other forms of injustice. This legacy of protest now finds expression in groups such as the Black Veterans for Social Justice; the National Network of Black Americans for Peace, Freedom, and Justice; Blacks Against Nukes; and the New Coalition of Conscience, among others.
In Congress, Representative Ron Dellums, a Democrat from California, introduced an alternative military budget as part of the Congressional Black Caucus' alternative budget for fiscal year 1984. Dellums' proposal calls for reductions in spending and stands in contrast to the general congressional debate over how much to increase the military budget. A memo explaining the alternative budget proposal concludes by saying that a defense policy "based on the defense of U.S. interests, rather than arming for intervention around the world, would require even lower spending levels than those proposed here."
Within the black community, the dialogue on issues of peace and nuclear disarmament is expanding. The point of reference for the black discussion of peace is not the current peace movement and its issues, although congruent areas of concern exist. The context of black peace and anti-militarist thought is, rather, the domestic and international struggle for justice for the poor and for people of color.
Thus when the Race Relations Institute at Fisk University, a historically black university in Nashville, Tennessee, sponsored a conference on peace issues in June, 1983, its theme was, "The Arms Race vs. Human Needs: National Dialogue on Jobs, Peace, and Freedom." Conference workshops carried such titles as "The Arms Race and the Third World," "Poverty, Hunger, and Militarism," "Nonviolent Protest: Strategies to Oppose War and Racism," "Third World Women, Sexism, and the Peace Movement," and "Racism and U.S. Militarism."
Articles and papers by black activists and scholars reflect a similar concern for justice and peace issues. "The struggle for black liberation is profoundly and inextricably linked with the fight for peace and disarmament," wrote Washington, D.C.-based activist Damu Smith in a Southern Exposure article. "Black Americans must be in the forefront of the opposition mounting both here and abroad to the insanity of Cold War revivalism and its partner, the spiraling arms race," said Smith.
In addition to the secular scholars and activists, black churches and individual black Christians are increasingly raising and linking issues of peace and global justice. A recent example is an October, 1983 conference on "The Black Church, the Third World, and Peace," held in Atlanta, Georgia. James White, professor of sociology at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and members of the Afro-American Mennonite Association organized the gathering, which brought together a predominantly black, Christian audience of nearly 200 people.
"This conference was generated out of the conviction that it will be the powerless who bring peace and justice," White said. The organizers hoped to share their theology of nonviolence and to raise issues of peace among Afro-American and Third World Christians of many denominations. A handful of African, Filipino, Caribbean, and Latin American people participated.
Workshops were conducted on a variety of topics, ranging from "Black Youth and the Military: Alternatives to Economic Conscription" to "American Racism," and from "The Nuclear Weapons Freeze and the Black Community" to "The Third World Peace and Justice."
Plenary speakers focused on peace concerns from a global perspective. Catherine Meeks, professor of sociology at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, opened the conference with a speech based on her experience of being "welcomed home as a sister" in West Africa.
Historian Vincent Harding, author of There is a River, discussed Martin Luther King, Jr.'s stand against the Vietnam War as a challenge to black Americans to get involved in world issues. According to Harding, King's message was, "We who have known what it is to be black in America have a particular responsibility to listen to the cry of those who are non-white under the heel of America, all over the world."
Harding told the audience, "There are lots of people in the so-called Third World who are asking, 'Where do black people in America stand?'"
Allan Boesak, a South African theologian and president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, spoke about the "spiritual kinship" between U.S. and South African liberation movements: "It is time that we realize—black people in this country and black people in South Africa—that ultimately we cannot live without one another and that ultimately your freedom, your true, authentic freedom is tied to our freedom."
James Cone, professor of systematic theology at Union Theological Seminary, described a vision for systemic change that includes and transcends the best creative aspects of the lives of King and Malcolm X. "Do not the increasing gap between the rich and the poor and the real possibility of a nuclear holocaust mean that we need to re-evaluate our definitions of freedom and the methods used to attain that freedom?" asked Cone. "The nuclear issue should force black people to think much deeper about the complexity and the meaning of peace and justice and how they can be established on earth."
On the question of black involvement in peace activity, Harding remarked that King might have said, '"Don't let there be a peace movement in this country unless black people are going to be part of the leadership of it, because even peace movement folks can forget a lot of things about race that they ought not to be allowed to forget. So we'd better be there, right in the middle of the leadership, to make clear that peace and justice must be tied together.'"
In the final session, conference participants exchanged strategies for engaging in peace and justice work. Several people expressed a concern for consistency in witness, questioning the fact that the conference was held at the Peachtree Plaza hotel owned by Westin—a corporation that also owns hotels in South Africa. The Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel is one of two Atlanta hotels being singled out by local anti-apartheid activists for its business involvement in South Africa.
Mark Hurst, an Atlanta-based conference organizer, explained that the group only discovered the hotel's South Africa connection after the contract was signed and it was too late to back out. Rev. Al Brown, one of the moderators, tried to clarify the matter at the final session. Brown pointed out that the hotel is owned by an individual who expressed concern about "religious things," "minorities," and "issues of peace," and who offered to charge conference participants $30 for rooms which normally rent for $93 to $117 a night.
Still one participant remarked, "We have no business being in this hotel talking about these issues .... If we're talking about black issues ... why not a black hotel?"
Another shortcoming at the Atlanta conference was the absence of leaders from the major black denominations. Most of the organizers and participants were black members of predominantly white denominations. If the wider black Christian community is to recognize peace and justice as important black issues, then the historically black denominations must become significantly involved in dialogue and action on these concerns.
A few signs of that involvement are now evident. For example, seven major black denominations, the National Conference of Black Christians, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Congress of National Black Churches have all endorsed the 1984 Peace with Justice Week. The Ministerial Interfaith Association of Harlem Inc., representing 200 congregations, held a peace march in Harlem in the summer of 1982. That same summer, the Seymour Society, an organization of black Christian students, conducted seminars in Boston-area black churches on the Reagan budget, disarmament, and interventionism.
Commenting on these and other developments, James White wrote, "The time has come to bring these many and varied voices together for consultation, prayer, and working at peacemaking as a foundation for social justice."
Liane Rozzell was an editorial assistant of Sojourners magazine when this article appeared.
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