The Justice Briefing with Dr. Jemar Tisby

The 2026 midterms could reshape Congress, intensify oversight, and test the limits of executive power. Early-voting trends and historic Southern races point to fierce battles over representation. The discussion also explores recounts, legal challenges, certification, contested results, and the democratic consequences of refusing to concede. A look back at the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party highlights how political struggle can influence future elections.

Garrison Hayes, award-winning communicator and Webby-winning creator, joins historian Dr. Jemar Tisby for a spoiler-filled deep dive into Sinners. They explore Clarksdale’s Jim Crow history, Chinese-Black relations, Christianity and Hoodoo, the blues, vampires, convict leasing, sharecropping, Indigenous power, Irish identity, and Ryan Coogler’s fight for creative ownership.

How do you tell a compelling story about racism, injustice, or social change without making your audience feel like they're listening to a sermon? What separates a story that moves people from one that overwhelms them with its message? And how do you build a creative career telling these stories when there isn't an obvious path forward?In this episode of The Justice Briefing, historian, author, and filmmaker Dr. Jemar Tisby sits down with award-winning writer and director Nick Brooks, director of the new narrative short film What Will We Tell Them.Brooks is the author of Promise Boys, Up in Smoke, and the Ethan Fairmont trilogy. His creative career has taken him from teaching and writing children's books to filmmaking, music, and video game writing.Their conversation explores the craft of storytelling, the relationship between social justice and art, the importance of representation, and the persistence required to create opportunities.In This Episode, You'll LearnWhy justice-centered stories can become preachy. How to build a story around characters. Brooks's three ingredients for a strong story. Why trusting your audience matters. How lived experience shapes creative work. How to pursue opportunities before you feel fully qualified. How to move from inspiration to a finished film. What went into making What Will We Tell Them. About Nick BrooksNick Brooks is an award-winning author, director, and musician whose work spans young adult and middle-grade fiction, film, and music. His writing explores the lives of young people navigating institutions, expectations, and systems of inequality.Learn more about Nick: thenickbrooks.comWhat Will We Tell ThemLearn more about the film "What Will We Tell Them" by subscribing for updates at: jemartisby.substack.comChapters00:00 — Welcome and *What Will We Tell Them* screening announcement  01:45 — Meet Nick Brooks: author, filmmaker, and creative artist  04:47 — Telling stories about justice without preaching  08:30 — Hook, heart, and theme: how Brooks develops stories  11:19 — The influence of hip-hop, books, and Black storytelling  14:47 — How to nurture social awareness in young people  18:20 — Howard University, mentorship, and discovering education  24:09 — Writing children's books and finding a creative purpose  29:15 — Creating opportunities and getting a literary agent  33:56 — Taking risks, handling rejection, and writing for GTA VI  38:15 — How children's books opened doors to a new career  41:11 — *Fruitvale Station*, Ryan Coogler, and becoming a filmmaker  45:30 — Learning filmmaking by getting onto film sets  48:13 — Mistakes to avoid when telling stories about injustice  50:44 — The story behind *What Will We Tell Them*  54:21 — Filmmaking challenges, preparation, and adapting on set  57:29 — Private screening details and ways to support the filmStay ConnectedSubscribe to "Footnotes" for historically grounded analysis, commentary about faith and justice, and updates on new films and educational projects: jemartisby.substack.comInstagram: @JemarTisby 

What do you do when the church, workplace, organization, or community you once called home no longer reflects your values?How do you know when it's time to stop fighting for a seat at someone else's table?And if you decide to leave, how do you figure out what comes next?Maybe you've spent years trying to make an institution better, only to discover that there's a limit to how much change its leaders will tolerate.Maybe your presence is welcomed, but your perspective isn't.Or maybe you have a vision for something different, but you're not sure you have the resources, experience, or courage to build it.This episode of The Justice Briefing will help you think through your next move.Dr. Jemar Tisby shares lessons from his journey out of white evangelical institutions and into building Tisby Media, an independent organization dedicated to truth-telling at the intersection of faith, history, and justice.Drawing on his personal experiences with racial exclusion, institutional resistance, and entrepreneurship, Jemar offers three practical principles for turning dissatisfaction into constructive action.You'll discover how to move beyond simply knowing what you want to leave behind and start identifying what you want to create.And you'll learn why building your own table might not be what you actually need.In this episode, you'll learn:How to recognize when an institution has made space for you without giving you meaningful powerWhy righteous anger can be a powerful starting point for creating positive changeHow to identify the deeper motivation that will sustain you when building something new gets difficultThe three factors that can help you discover a mission uniquely suited to your gifts and convictionsThe surprising difference between building your own table and building your own chairYou'll also hear about Jemar's forthcoming book, Notes from an Evangelical Reject, and get updates on projects from Tisby Media, including the upcoming short film What Will We Tell Them?If you're tired of shrinking yourself to fit someone else's vision—or you have a dream of creating something better but don't know where to begin—this episode will help you see the possibilities in front of you and take your next step with greater clarity.Mentioned in this episodeNotes from an Evangelical Reject — Jemar's forthcoming book, available for preorder. Publication date: January 19, 2027.How to Resist White Christian Nationalism — A self-paced course featuring practical action steps.Jesus Was a Migrant — Watch the trailer and learn about community screenings at https://jesuswasamigrant.com.What Will We Tell Them? — A new narrative short film from Tisby Studios. Book Launch Team — Join Jemar's launch team for exclusive resources, updates, and opportunities to help spread the word about Notes from an Evangelical Reject. Join HERE.Footnotes — Subscribe for historical insights and analysis at the intersection of race, religion, and politics. JemarTisby.Substack.com Episode chapters00:00 – How to Build Your Own Table02:27 – Why So Many People Are Questioning Their Institutions07:48 – Jemar's Journey Through White Evangelicalism12:58 – When You're Given a Seat but Not a Voice17:19 – Principle 1: Identify Your Internal Driver19:59 – How Righteous Anger Can Fuel Constructive Change21:24 – The Vision That Pulls You Forward22:28 – Principle 2: Create a Clear Mission24:09 – Discovering Your Gifts and Learning to Trust Yourself27:33 – Finding Joy and Passion in Your Work29:29 – Identifying the Need Only You Can Address31:09 – Principle 3: Decide What You're Actually Building31:43 – The Difference Between Building a Table and Building a Chair36:21 – How Jemar Built Tisby Media40:03 – The Justice Briefing, Teaching, and the Justice Institute42:40 – Tisby Studios and the Power of Film44:10 – What Will We Tell Them? and the Legacy We're Creating46:16 – Notes from an Evangelical Reject and the Book Launch Team54:02 – Upcoming Projects and New Developments58:04 – Why We Need New and Truer InstitutionsFollow Jemar TisbyYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JTisbyAbout The Justice BriefingThe Justice Briefing is your weekly guide to current events at the intersection of faith, history, and justice.#TheJusticeBriefing #JemarTisby #EvangelicalReject

In a rare guest interview, Dr. Jemar Tisby sits down with Dr. Matthew D. Taylor, author of the new book Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists.They discuss Christian supremacy, Christendom, and imperialism. Going deeper, they explore how Jesus displayed and taught about power, and why the tyrants who claim his name avoid those teachings with surgical precision.They also talk about the cost of this work. Dr. Taylor lost his job for writing this book.You'll come away with a theological case for defying tyrants and a picture of what that looks like in the church, in politics, and in everyday life.Get Defying Tyrants wherever you get your books.Topics AddressedPete Hegseth's speech and the new Office of Religious AffairsConstantine's conversion and the merging of church and empireChristian supremacy as the ideology beneath Christian nationalismWhy "antichrists" in 1 and 2 John refers to Christians who harm others in Jesus' nameThe parable of the wheat and the taresThe cost of speaking out against authoritarianismSupport conversations like this one by becoming a paid subscriber at JemarTisby.Substack.com.Resources ReferencedMatthew D. Taylor, Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists (Broadleaf, 2026)Matthew D. Taylor, The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy (2024)Matthew D. Taylor's Reckonings (Substack)Scripture: Mark 10:42-45; 1 John 2:18-19; Matthew 13:24-30

Why must “white” remain explicit when discussing Christian nationalism? This discussion explores the movement’s plantation-style hierarchy, tokenism, misleading labels, and the limits of facts alone. It examines the powerful story behind the ideology, Christian responsibility to confront it, and the journey from awareness to courageous resistance.

A look at miscarriages in ICE custody and the failures surrounding medical care for pregnant immigrants. The discussion explores biblical obligations toward immigrants, racial disparities in maternal healthcare, and the forgotten history of the religious right. It traces how battles over segregated Christian schools and tax exemptions helped shape conservative politics before abortion became its defining cause.

This episode of The Justice Briefing is different. Instead of starting with a current event and working backward to the history, Dr. Jemar Tisby does what he loves most: he tells stories. Diving back into primary source research for his new Substack series, History Rhymes: Democracy and Voting Rights Edition, left him feeling like a grad student again, brimming with material he could not wait to share. So he devoted a full episode to three of those stories.The first is about the Congress that refused to seat more than sixty former Confederates in December 1865, overrode a president more than a dozen times, and wrote insurrection into the official record. The second is about the 1868 Charleston constitutional convention, the only one in American history with a Black majority, where recently emancipated men wrote the most democratic document South Carolina had ever seen and included the children of the people who had enslaved them. The third is about Amos T. Akerman, a former Confederate and enslaver who became attorney general and prosecuted the first Ku Klux Klan out of existence for forty years. Taken together, the three stories make one argument: Congress has the power, it lacks the will, and history has the receipts.Topics AddressedWhy the first iteration of the Ku Klux Klan disbanded in the mid-1870s and did not reconstitute until 1915The 1868 South Carolina constitutional convention: 76 Black delegates out of 124, and the only Black-majority state legislature in U.S. historyWhat Black delegates actually wrote into the state constitution, including free public schools, protected suffrage, women's property rights, and a permanent ban on secessionThe three Enforcement Acts, and why the Ku Klux Klan Act finally worked by naming the state itself as the defendantResources ReferencedHere's What Congress Did When Members Had a SpineWhen Black People Wrote the ConstitutionWhen the Department of Justice Prosecuted the Ku Klux Klan Out of ExistenceThe Spirit of Justice by Jemar Tisby: bit.ly/spiritofjusticeA Way Forward: Hope in Uncertain Times, Nashville, August 28-30, with Rep. Justin Pearson, Shane Claiborne, and others. Free, but registration is required: Register hereSupport This WorkHistory Rhymes: Democracy and Voting Rights Edition runs weekly through the 2026 midterms, roughly twelve installments in all. The episodes are free. The articles are free. The research is not.If this is the kind of work you want more of, become a paid subscriber at JemarTisby.Substack.com. It is $5.83 a month on the annual plan. Less than six dollars for history from a PhD historian who spent years learning the tools of the discipline to bring it to you.Stay informed. Stay faithful. Stay in the fight.

On the 61st anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, Dr. Jemar Tisby closes a full history of the law by turning to the fight over it right now. What took blood and marches to win in 1965 has been taken apart in the thirteen years since 2013, from Shelby County to Louisiana v. Callais, and almost nobody marched. Dr. Tisby refuses to end there. He points to the faith leaders already mobilizing to protect the ballot before the November midterms, from William Barber's 100 days of action to the poll chaplains and peacekeepers being trained in local churches, and he names the moment for what it is: the civil rights movement of our generation. The episode also launches History Rhymes: Democracy and Voting Edition, Dr. Tisby's three-month series tracing the struggle over the vote from Reconstruction to today.In This Episode Why 2026 is the civil rights movement of our generation, and how the April march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge echoed 1965How the Voting Rights Act was taken apart in thirteen years, from Shelby County to Louisiana v. CallaisFaith leaders mobilizing before the midterms, including William Barber's 100 days of actionPoll chaplains and peacekeepers: protecting voters, protecting ballots, and protecting the system itselfThe launch of History Rhymes: Democracy and Voting Edition on FootnotesThe closing charge: register, check your registration, and take somebody with youResources ReferencedThe Washington Informer, "Faith leaders start 100-day countdown to Nov. 3 election," featuring Rev. Dr. William Barber and Rev. Tony Lee of Community of Hope AME Church: https://www.washingtoninformer.com/faith-leaders-midterm-vote/Black Church PAC and its Freedom Summer events: https://www.blackchurchpac.org/All Roads Lead South Coalition, organizers of the 2026 march across the Edmund Pettus BridgeHistory Rhymes: Democracy and Voting Edition, Dr. Tisby's new Footnotes series: https://JemarTisby.Substack.comSupport The Justice BriefingThe Justice Briefing runs on readers and listeners, not advertisers. If it helps you make sense of this moment, the best way to support it is to subscribe to Footnotes at JemarTisby.Substack.com. The annual plan comes to $5.83 a month, it keeps this work independent, and it puts every installment of History Rhymes: Democracy and Voting Edition in your inbox from now through the midterms.

The DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee just voted to have South Carolina lead off the 2028 Democratic presidential primaries, and Dr. Jemar Tisby explains why that decision matters more than the news cycle will let on. He walks through what a primary actually does, why the order of states determines momentum, money, and makes the case that this is a win for the party. In this episode:What a primary actually is, and why it is not a direct vote for the nomineeWhy the order of states determines momentum, media coverage, donor confidence, and who drops outThe South Carolina versus Nevada split and the case Latino leaders made for NevadaThe progressive objection to a Southern first primary and what it assumes about Black Southern votersSix things candidates should do over the next 18 months to earn Black votesResources referenced:Previous episode: "What Every Social Movement Must Do"Dr. Tisby's YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@JTisbySupport the show:There are no ads on The Justice Briefing and no sponsors. Paid subscribers are the ones who make this work possible. If the breakdown of the 2028 primary calendar was useful to you weeks before it becomes a headline, become a paid subscriber at JemarTisby.Substack.com.