Immoral.

This is apparently a subjective term, especially if inclusion, diversity, equity, accessibility, and environmental justice are somehow construed as immoral, or wrong. 

There was a time when American law did not consider holding other human beings in bondage immoral. For more than three centuries, America prospered on the backs of people kidnapped from their homes and families, subjected to the basest conditions including physical abuse and sexual exploitation, forbidden from the opportunity to learn to read and write, vulnerable at all times to further separation from their spouses, children, and parents. How many generations of people fit into 350 years?

And while these people were subjugated, other people had all the advantages and opportunity offered: access to land, education, purpose, security, accumulated wealth. And these advantaged people retained their power by controlling American law and defining “morality.”

Harriet Beecher Stowe chose to write her anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin as a plea to the morality of the American people. She wrote: “An atmosphere of sympathetic influence encircles every human being; and the man or woman who feels strongly, healthily and justly, on the great interests of humanity is a constant benefactor to the human race.” Stowe empathically called people to action: have mercy, work for justice, honor humanity.

Over time and with much effort from reformers such as Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and a multitude of others who spoke up for common humanity and communal good, we, as an American people, changed our understanding of what is right, and we created new laws that valued humanity.

The Stowe Center honors the legacy of Stowe and all who advocate hope and freedom then and now by asking Americans to resist redefinitions of morality. 

We, like many organizations such as the American Association of University Professors, urge Americans to hold to our understanding of what is right. 

Dr. Bernice A. King, attorney, author, and CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, spoke out January 20th, in favor of what is right. She said: “[MLK’s] vision of beloved community grounded in justice, equality and love remains just as urgent today as it was when he first shared it. It’s our turn to continue the work.” King went on to quote her father: “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic.” And she asked: “Are we standing for love-centered justice?” 

The Stowe Center believes in love-centered justice. We believe in mercy in support of good for all.

We celebrate the bravery of Bishop Mariann Budde, who addressed the new administration by saying: “I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives.”

She went on to say: “The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.” (New York Times, January 21, 2025)

The Stowe Center’s moral compass points to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and environmental justice. These rich values are essential to love-centered justice, to hope, and to freedom.

We will not in any way turn from our due north. Our devotion to the inherent worth and dignity of humanity and a call for equity in America will not waver.  

Our measure of morality is tied to empathy, compassion, and fairness.

The measure of an American system that considers equity immoral is power and greed. Extractive, mean, selfish—this “morality” will devastate us.

Harriet Beecher Stowe ended her anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin with a plea to Americans to find the true north of their morality. She wrote: “Does not every American Christian owe to the African race some effort at reparation for the wrongs that the American nation has brought upon them?” Stowe called for mercy and she called for justice.

We call for mercy, we call for justice. We will not stop telling truth.

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The Stowe Center for Literary Activism encourages social justice and literary activism by exploring the legacy of Harriet Beecher Stowe and all who advocate hope and freedom then and now.