The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism

Jemar Tisby is a public historian, national speaker, bestselling author, and co-host of the “Pass the Mic” podcast. Tisby is dedicated to revealing the truth and reality of the Black experience. As an advocate, he addresses the complex relation of race, history, and religion, bringing his long experience of teaching to universities and speaking to organizations, congregations, and communities.

Tisby grew up in Chicago. He attended Catholic school, but religion was not part of his family’s life. He was introduced to Christian faith after following a high school friend to an evangelical youth congregation. Seeing church activities as a way of socializing, he was soon influenced by the pastor’s messages and philosophy. Embracing Christianity, Tisby discovered a new way of life.

After graduating high school, Tisby attended the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, where he became acquainted with the tradition of Reformed Theology and was intrigued by the philosophy of the Scriptures. He began to explore Christian teachings, reading several works by pastors and theologian. During his time in the university, he began to attend a reformed Christian church. Tisby realized that a form of racial segregation still persisted as he was the only Black person in an all-white congregation. He also volunteered at youth summer camps in inner-city communities in Chicago, where Tisby witnessed the ongoing discrimination and poverty that impacted Black neighborhoods, especially young people. The persistence of injustice urged Tisby to work for the well-being of Black communities.

After his graduation, Tisby worked as a teacher at a public charter school in the Mississippi Delta where the patterns of racial injustice became evident. Tisby saw that segregation, generational poverty, high rates of incarceration, and a lack of infrastructure impacted the lives of his young Black students. Turning to his faith for answers, he realized that the largely white tradition of Reformed theology did not provide insights into racial justice. While much of the philosophy on God and the Bible focused on issue of personal redemption and piety, the issue of race in connection to religion remained largely unaddressed. Tisby decided to work on bringing the issue of racial equality and justice to the forefront of reformed and evangelical Christianity.

Tisby received a Master of Divinity from the Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, in 2011. While at the Seminary, he worked at a multiracial Presbyterian church but soon realized that the ideology of whiteness still dominated in Christian circles. At this time, Tisby started publicly speaking and writing about the relationship between religion and race, and he sought to address racism within Christian churches. Tisby continued his communal activities, founding the Reformed African American Network and the African American Leadership Initiative with the goal of making space for Black people within the Reformed and evangelical churches.

As ongoing police violence sparked the Black Lives Matter movement, Tisby witnessed racist attitudes among white Christians who refused to confront the issue of institutional racism. Realizing that the study of history is key in addressing present social problems, Tisby enrolled at a graduate history course at Jackson State University. Eager to research the history of race in America, he pursued a PhD in history at the University of Mississippi where he studied religion, race, and 20th-century social movements.

In 2017, Tisby formed The Witness: A Black Christian Collective, an all-Black initiative to empower Black voices within the evangelical community. The collective sought to counter the dominance and assimilation of Black Christians to white norms and theologies. Tisby worked at the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University before pursuing writing full-time. Tisby’s work remains devoted to racial justice within the church and the nation.