Black Morality Politics: Progressive Moral Frames at the Dawn of the Trump Era

Using “morality” in contemporary public policy discourse has most often been reserved for the religious right. However, this paper looks at recent examples of African Americans using moral frames to mobilize on behalf of “progressive” policies. We examine in particular, the Repairers of the Breach (an off shoot of North Carolina’s Moral Mondays), as well as organizing for police reform in Baltimore, Maryland. Our analysis (based on interviews of activists and key leaders, observation of protests, rallies and meetings, the review of written materials and media accounts) reveals a number of key insights. First, morality is understood broadly. Leaders and activists in each of these cases emphasize societal and government behavior moral frames, rather than the personal behavior moral frames commonly used on the political right. We also see the centrality of coalitions. Although Black led, each of these efforts entail multi-racial (and multi-faith) coalitions. In each of these examples, intersectionality is a key organizing principle. Importantly, this has brought a key challenge as respectability issues serve as an impediment to organizing and mobilizing would be allies. Despite these challenges, our analysis suggests the use of these moral frames resonate broadly and seem to be a powerful means to mobilize communities around issues not typically referred to as moral concerns.