The Black Commentator - Voices of Moral Consciousness

As we enter this month dedicated to celebrating the struggle, accomplishments, and significant contributions of Americans of African descent, there is much to note and commemorate. Vitally important, however, is that we do not fail to mention the historical—and continuing—ability of the black community in America to produce some of our nation’s most powerful voices of moral consciousness. Having recently witnessed the birthday of the great champion of the Civil Rights struggle, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the attendant focus on his “social gospel,” we are again reminded of the presence of those great “prophetic” voices.

Perhaps the greatest example of such a voice is Frederick Douglass, the seminal nineteenth-century orator, author, and abolitionist. Rising from roots that began in bondage as an abused and neglected slave, the self-educated Douglass would become one of the most passionate and articulate voices advocating for the freedom -- and subsequently, the equality -- of America’s African population.

However, Douglass’ ability to “speak truth to power” was not confined to his abolitionist activities. Like Martin Luther King, he was also a fearless opponent of this country’s militarism. In an essay condemning the 1846-1848 American invasion and occupation of Mexico, Douglass highlights many facts that bear striking similarity to realities surrounding our country’s current invasion and occupation of Iraq. The essay, one of Douglass’ lesser-known works, is brief enough to quote in its entirety:

War With Mexico

The rumors of peace with Mexico seem all to end in rumor. All hopes of peace are, to my mind, based upon the most shallow apprehension of the character of the ruling power in this country. The present unholy war is not the accident of a day, but the result of long years of national transgression. Pride and ambition, when once in the full possession of a nation’s heart, and roused to action, cannot be easily expelled, by any means this side of national ruin. We have given ourselves up to the blind spirit of mad ambition. The war will be carried on. The bones of more American citizens must be added to the thousands now bleaching on the plains of Mexico. The slaughter of Mexicans must be continued and the government of that country annihilated, before this wicked war can cease. Some hopes of peace have been predicated on our national love for money; but glory has no time for monetary considerations, especially while the idea of making Mexico pay for her own invasion can be held out to blind the eyes of the American people. While we can make the Mexican government pay our soldiers for invading [her][1] territory, and blowing out the brains of her citizens, no rational prospect of a peace with that nation can be predicated on our fears of a national debt. It is impossible to induce the people of this country to feel, or to think of, either the expense or wickedness of this war, unless they are brought to their senses by a direct tax –and this is out of the question. The Whigs are opposed to direct taxation, and the Democrats are in favor of a vigorous prosecution of the war, and the people are intoxicated with military glory; peace, therefore, cannot, for the present, take place. Slavery, treachery and mad ambition are at the head of the government, in the person of [President] James K. Polk, and the means of checking them are naught. We can only bear our testimony, clear our own skirts, and await the catastrophe of our national crimes. What that will be is known only to the Most High, the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe. Whatever it may be, our duty will have been done; and the righteous God will save those who have done their duty and put their trust in Him. [2]

Many historians argue that America’s wanton abuses during her invasion of Mexico led to the catastrophe of the Civil War, the deadliest and most destructive war in this nation’s history. That war began just over a decade after Douglass penned his penetrating, and in many ways, prophetic words. Douglass had done his duty. He had attempted to warn those who were too drunk with power to realize the great truth expressed in the following words of the poet and abolitionist James Russell Lowell:

Careless seems the great avenger; history’s pages but record
One death grapple in the darkness ‘twixt old systems and the Word;
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne, —
Yet the scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own. [3]

Lowell’s words, which would be frequently quoted by Martin Luther King, Jr., were inspired by this country’s annexation of Texas, an event that would prove a critical catalyst in precipitating the war Douglass so vigorously condemned.

As we find ourselves in the midst of another national crisis surrounding the Iraq War, it is incumbent on every Muslim, nay every American, to examine his or her conscience and ask a question that Douglass alluded to in his essay: “When the catastrophe of our national crimes descends upon this nation, will we have done our duty?” Would we have searched our hearts and then stood up with prophetic courage and warned our countrymen of the disastrous consequences of the course our leadership is charting? Would we have searched our minds, and then, with vision and clarity, offered an alternative path, predicated on the brotherhood and the sisterhood of all humanity?

If we lack the courage to do, as Douglass put it, this “duty,” we need look no further than the struggles of the many courageous African Americans, whose lives we commemorate during this month, for inspiration.

[1] The word “our” appears at this place in the original document.

[2] Frederick Douglass, War With Mexico, February, 1848. Library of Congress, North Star. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi.

[3] James Russell Lowell, The Poems of James Russell Lowell (London, New York: Oxford University Press, 1917), 96.

Zaid Shakir is amongst the most respected and influential Islamic scholars in the West. As an American Muslim who came of age during the civil rights struggles, he has brought both sensitivity about race and poverty issues and scholarly discipline to his faith-based work. He serves as a scholar-in-residence and lecturer at Zaytuna Institute, where he now teaches courses on Arabic, Islamic law, history, and Islamic spirituality.