The Emancipation Proclamation pronounced release from bondage to the enslaved, but it required vigilance. Troops went to Texas to enforce freedom. “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” wrote Ida B. Wells decades later in the final chapter of her autography. The pioneering investigative journalist died in March 1931 and never finished that chapter. However, her tenacious life and legacy established that vigilance is virtuous.

In her book Southern Horrors: Lynching in All Its Phases, Wells’ attentiveness to the rampant, repulsive act of lynching gave voice to the violated. Her observance of gender inequities spurred interest in defending women’s right nationally and internationally. Her prudence brought honor and dignity to Black lives.

Vigilance was an important facet of the apostle Peter’s message in his first letter. He addressed first-century Christians steeped in an environment of hostility and increasing oppression. Peter urged them to persevere in the faith amidst the ongoing persecution. He reminded them to be vigilant because our enemy the devil is always looking for an opportunity “to devour” someone (1 Peter 5:8).

The first-century call to remain vigilant persists in history to the present day. Peter encouraged fidelity to Christ through vigilance. Wells exemplified love of neighbor through vigilance. Evil and temptation subsist in everyday society and our spiritual journey. As Christians, we should be cognizant of both truths.

An observer noted that it was “a strange sight” seeing Rev. Henry Highland Garnet stand where no African American man had stood before. All seats were occupied and galleries overflowed as the formerly enslaved man turned abolitionist became the first African American minister to preach before the US House of Representatives.

Garnet was invited to speak to memorialize the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery. His sermon declared, “If slavery has been destroyed merely from necessity, let every class be enfranchised at the dictation of justice.”

Justice urges freedom and equity. Psalm 99 tells us, “Great is the Lord” (v. 2), “he is holy” (v. 3), “loves justice” and has “established equity” (v. 4). Justice comes from the Hebrew word mishpat, describing God’s heavenly design on earth. Doing mishpat means we act to restore and heal others. Psalm 101 promises that when we enact justice, “[God’s] eyes will be on the faithful . . . that they may dwell with [him]” (v. 6).

Garnet loved what God loved, enacting justice in the now because a just God pursued him for eternity. Pastoring churches, presiding over historically Black Avery College, serving as a missionary to Jamaica, and multiplying antislavery speeches, “[He] saw the work of Christians to foster justice now in expectation of eschatological justice then.”