Black Natural Law offers a new way of understanding the African American political tradition. By telling the stories of Frederick Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Martin Luther King Jr., the book shows how appeals to a higher law, or God’s law, have long fueled black political engagement. Such appeals do not seek to implement divine directives on earth; rather, they pose a challenge to the wisdom of the world, and they mobilize communities for collective action. Black natural law is deeply democratic: While charismatic leaders may provide the occasion for reflection and mobil ... More

Black Natural Law offers a new way of understanding the African American political tradition. By telling the stories of Frederick Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Martin Luther King Jr., the book shows how appeals to a higher law, or God’s law, have long fueled black political engagement. Such appeals do not seek to implement divine directives on earth; rather, they pose a challenge to the wisdom of the world, and they mobilize communities for collective action. Black natural law is deeply democratic: While charismatic leaders may provide the occasion for reflection and mobilization, all are capable of discerning the higher law using human capacities for reason and emotion. At a time when continuing racial injustice poses a deep moral challenge, the most powerful intellectual resources in the struggle for justice have been abandoned. Black Natural Law recovers a rich tradition, and it examines just how this tradition was forgotten. A black intellectual class emerged that was disconnected from social movement organizing and beholden to white interests. Appeals to higher law became politically impotent: overly rational or overly sentimental. Recovering the black natural law tradition provides a powerful resource for confronting police violence, mass incarceration, and today’s gross racial inequities. Black Natural Law offers a new way to approach natural law, a topic central to the Western ethical and political tradition. While drawing particularly on African American resources, Black Natural Law speaks to all who seek politics animated by justice.