Faith & (in)Justice

From the impact of slavery and the struggle for freedom and civil rights, to matters of gender and LGBTQ+ equality, economic parity and environmental justice, Faith & (in)Justice highlights the role of religion in the nation’s social justice movements. Through five sections, the exhibition challenges guests to rethink entrenched stereotypes of religion and to critically consider where faith and equity coincide and collide.

The exhibition uses artifacts, photographs, moving images and music to immerse guests in foundational moments in the nation’s social justice struggle.  Among the artifacts included in the exhibition are a pair of boxing gloves signed by Muhammad Ali who refused to be drafted for the Vietnam War because of his religious beliefs; a sample of lead-contaminated water from Flint, Michigan, where churches helped fill the civil services gap to provide clean water; a Ku Klux Klan robe owned by an Ohio Quaker family; and a facsimile of Thomas Jefferson’s The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, in which he cut and pasted passages from six copies of the New Testament. A recreated praise house, where enslaved people would gather on plantations in the South, surrounds guests as they learn about the early history of the Black Church.

The Freedom Center, in partnership with Cincinnati Museum Center, developed Faith & (in)Justice with partial support from Lilly Endowment Inc. through the Endowment’s Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative.