BWAP 2025: God’s Enduring Presence ~ Jasmine Jones

When I was a child, I thought Christianity was a religion that was made up for the sole purpose of keeping enslaved people enslaved. I can’t point to a specific time I was taught this, because it was something I just always knew. For as long as I knew about slavery, I knew Christianity was used to justify it. And this made me very, very confused.

For example, although my family was not religious, I knew that the Church played a prominent role in many Black people’s lives. I also knew that Christianity isn’t just important to individual Black people, but is a part of Black culture in general in the United States. What I didn’t understand was why. Why did these connections exist? Why did Black people hold onto this religion that was used to justify inhumane and cruel treatment of our ancestors? How could they believe this religion to be true when our ancestors were forced to abandon their spiritual practices?

Even while I held these questions (and judgments) for Black Americans who believed in Christianity, I also had a sense of admiration – even jealousy – because it seemed like they had something I didn’t. But in Alabama, both my judgment and jealousy melted away, because I finally saw what generations before me saw in Christianity, and I began to see what it was that Black Christians had that I desired.

At the Legacy Museum, there was an exhibit that showed the experience of enslaved people as they were held captive while waiting to be sold from one enslaver to another. The exhibit featured around ten small jail cells; in each jail cell was a hologram of a different person narrating a real account from an enslaved person. Watching the holograms was like seeing real-life ghosts of the past.

There was one hologram that really struck me. It was of an older lady, singing a church hymn in a loud, operatic voice. Unlike the others, she didn’t seem scared or saddened. Instead, she seemed confident and strong. She had this aura about her that said she knew something great – much greater than her current situation. As I watched her sing, I came to the understanding that it was not pure bravery that allowed her to be so calm and collected in such desolate conditions. Instead, I truly believed it was the strength that God had gifted her. It was her faith in God that allowed her to see past her current life as an enslaved woman.

There, I found the answer to my questions. How could Black people believe in a religion that was used to harm their ancestors in the past? Well, despite the twisted ways Bible verses were used to oppress, I saw the ways the presence of the Holy Spirit, and faith in God, could grant comfort and support in times of struggle.

Jasmine Jones is a senior studying elementary education.

Photo: BWAP team members Shaniya Auxier (front) and Jasmine Jones (back) at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.