Our Story
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.
Our work is worship.
Our research is resistance.
Our preaching is prophecy.
Meet the
Co-Founder
Rev. Dr. Paris L. Smith, Sr.
Pastor | Logistics Visionary | Black Liberation Theologian | Community Leader & Developer | Humanitarian | Author | Lecturer | Adjunct Professor | Artist | Songwriter | Black Church Advocate
Dr. Smith is a dedicated servant of God, a transformative leader, and a passionate advocate for social justice, particularly within the Black church tradition. As a pastor, educator, and community organizer, Dr. Smith has committed himself to empowering individuals and communities while promoting the principles of Black liberation theology and holistic freedom.
Educational Background and Scholarly Pursuits
Dr. Smith has earned a rich and diverse theological education. He holds a Bachelor of Theology from the Tennessee School of Religion in Memphis, Tennessee, a Master of Divinity from the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and a Doctor of Ministry as a Curtis-Stewart Fellow from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. Dr. Smith is also pursuing a Ph.D. in Public Theology & Community Engagement at Hampton University School of Religion in Hampton, Virginia…further deepening his expertise in biblical and research scholarship and homiletics.
Academic and Teaching Contributions
Dr. Smith has made significant contributions to the academic field, particularly in the areas of preaching, liberation theology, and the Black church tradition. He served as an adjunct professor at the historically significant Simmons College of Kentucky in Louisville, Kentucky, where he taught courses in preaching, liberation theology, and Black church history. Dr. Smith has been a visiting adjunct professor at Memphis Theological Seminary, Memphis, Tennessee, since December 1, 2022. In this capacity, he teaches both Doctor of Ministry and master’s level courses, guiding future church leaders in their academic and ministerial formation.
Pastoral Leadership
Dr. Smith has been entrusted with pastoral leadership in various congregations, guiding them through periods of growth, spiritual renewal, affordable housing, apartment housing for profit, and social transformation. His pastoral journey includes service as Senior Pastor of:
First Congregational Methodist Church (Louisville, Kentucky)
Evergreen Missionary Baptist Church (Lawrenceburg, Kentucky)
Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church (Griffin, Georgia)
Dr. Smith also served as the 11th Senior Pastor of the historic Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., continuing his legacy of faithful and transformative leadership.
Commitment to Liberation and Holistic Freedom
A passionate advocate for the liberation of oppressed people, Dr. Smith’s ministry is rooted in the vision outlined in Luke 4:18 (NIV): "He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free." His commitment to this mission is not limited to the spiritual realm but extends to the mental, emotional, social, and theological aspects of human flourishing. He believes in the transformative power of faith, particularly in bringing holistic change to marginalized communities.
Artistic and Social Advocacy
In addition to his theological and pastoral work, Dr. Smith is an artist and songwriter, using his creative gifts to communicate the message of liberation, healing, and hope. His work reflects his deep commitment to social justice and the betterment of society, as he seeks to inspire and empower individuals to live into their divine purpose.
Dr. Smith continues to be an influential voice in the Black church community and beyond, advocating for a faith that is both transformative and liberating and deeply attuned to the struggles and aspirations of Black people.
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Our ethos is born of struggle, sanctified by survival, and sustained by Spirit. We are scholars of the sacred and the street — interpreters of signs and sufferers, truth-tellers in the face of empire, and stewards of memory in a culture that forgets too easily.
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Our ethos begins with love — not sentimental affection, but what bell hooks called “love as the practice of freedom.” Love is our first hermeneutic, our lens for reading humanity. It is the driving force that compels us to see the image of God in every face, especially in those whom society has rendered invisible.
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Our ethos is grounded in truth-telling — that moral courage to name what is broken without losing sight of what can be healed. We do not hide behind neutrality. As Dr. Cornel West reminds us, “Justice is what love looks like in public.” Our scholarship is not detached observation but engaged revelation.
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Our ethos is sustained by hope, but not the naive optimism of comfort. Our hope is forged in the fires of protest, in the prayers of grandmothers, in the songs sung between cotton rows and jail cells. It is the hope that refuses to die, because it has seen resurrection before.
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Our ethos is shaped by memory — the sacred task of remembering the forgotten. We recall the cries of the enslaved, the courage of the marchers, the brilliance of the thinkers who carved light out of darkness. We are not new; we are continuation. We walk in the lineage of Harriet, Sojourner, Douglass, Fannie Lou, Martin, Malcolm, Ella, and Audre.
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Our ethos is enacted through liberative imagination — the belief that another world is not only possible but already gestating in the holy unrest of the present. We read the signs of the times not as despairing symbols of decay but as invitations to divine creativity.
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Our ethos is animated by Spirit — that power which resists domestication. The Spirit blows through our scholarship as it once moved over chaos in Genesis, birthing new orders of meaning. We are Spirit-led intellectuals, Spirit-empowered organizers, Spirit-breathed interpreters of word and world.
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Our ethos is fundamentally prophetic. The prophetic does not predict; it pronounces. It calls the world to account and calls the people to rise. To be prophetic is to inhabit the dangerous space between lament and liberation, where words become fire and silence becomes complicit.
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Finally, our ethos is communal. We do not think in isolation; we think together. Our classrooms are circles, our pulpits are platforms for the people, our scholarship is a dialogue across generations. We believe that wisdom grows in community, that theology without the people is empty rhetoric, and that every voice — from the academy to the alley — carries a fragment of divine truth.