We are the inheritors of a long, unbroken tradition—a lineage of thinkers, preachers, poets, and prophets who understood that scholarship without justice is sterile, and justice without love is hollow. We are justice scholars, meaning we labor not merely in libraries but in the living streets of our communities. Our research is not confined to theory; it breathes through the pulse of people, the sound of protest, the sermon, the song, and the sacred text.

To be a justice scholar is to hold a double consciousness, as W. E. B. Du Bois taught us: to live between the academy and the altar, between the world as it is and the world as it must become. It is to read scripture, culture, and suffering as texts layered with meaning—a semiotic landscape of signs and symbols that point toward redemption.

We write not for applause but for awakening. We teach not to impress but to ignite. Our vocation is prophetic inquiry: we decode systems, dismantle idols, and unveil truth in language that sings, convicts, and heals. Our sources are as diverse as our struggle—the speeches of King and Malcolm, the theology of Cone and Thurman, the poetry of Lorde and Giovanni, the witness of Ferguson and Minneapolis. Each moment of resistance becomes both archive and altar, demanding a hermeneutic that honors pain while envisioning possibility.

We are rooted in the African American prophetic tradition, yet our reach extends globally and inclusively. Our intellectual inheritance carries the wisdom of the Black Church, the resilience of the freedom movement, and the restless creativity of a people who refused to let despair have the final word. In our scholarship, the sacred meets the social, the academic meets the anointed, and theory bends its knee to truth.

To be a justice scholar is to stand at the intersection of faith and freedom, word and world, analysis and anointing. We do not simply interpret history—we interrupt it. We do not merely critique systems—we call them to repentance. And in that calling, we remember that justice is not an idea; it is a divine rhythm, a moral gravity pulling the world back toward love.