The Arc of Justice

“And on the road, you’ll read words from some of America’s greatest leaders, including a quote that inspired that arch that you see right there at the south end of the plaza by Theodore Parker. “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” It’s a quote that was often invoked by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but it originally comes from a Boston minister’s sermon more than 170 years ago. And at the time, the abolitionist cause seemed lost, the compromise of 1850 had made harboring fugitive slaves a crime under federal law, even in those states that had abolished slavery. And in a case that garnered national attention, a young fugitive in Boston had been seized and tried and marched to the wharf by hundreds of armed officers, where he was summarily put on a ship bound for the south, where he would remain in shackles and chains. It was a moment of profound uncertainty and despair, a moment the minister called darker than any New England had witnessed. “We do not see, Reverend Theodore Parker observed, “that justice is always done on earth. Many a knave is rich, sleek, and honored, while the just man is poor, hated, and in torment. I do not pretend,” the preacher said, “to understand the moral universe. The arc is a long one. My eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight. I can divine it by conscience, but from what I see, I am sure it bends towards justice.”

Source: President Obama and Mrs. Obama’s Remarks at the Opening of the Obama Presidential Center | by Barack Obama | Jun, 2026 | Medium

What do you think?

Start a Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑