Unlike Senator Hiram Revels before him, Bruce was selected to serve the full term primarily by black Republican colleagues, taking 52 of the 84 votes in the second ballot over Republican carpetbaggers, Representative George McKee and U.S. District Attorney G. Wiley Wells. The full legislature elected Bruce nearly unanimously on February 4, 1874.

My hope is that Freedom’s Journal Magazine will have both impact and influence by tackling the critical issues, which are plaguing our nation, as well as our community. Issues like education (an already planned an anticipated special issue) where we address fully school choice and other alternatives. I believe that education is one of the civil rights issues of the 21st century because our children our not getting the education they need or deserve.

Dean Nelson, executive director of the Network of Politically Active Christians (NPAC), believes that personal responsibility lies at the heart of combating poverty for people of all races. “It’s easy to forget that in the early twentieth century black unemployment was actually lower than white unemployment,” Nelson points out.

Nowhere is this more painfully obvious than in the observably weak voice the Christian church is raising in opposition to abortion on demand in America, nor in the embarrassingly meager support it offers to the fight to affirm the human dignity of marginalized people throughout this nation and around the world.

Historically, churches and other religious entities have added value to society in more traditional areas such as education, nutrition and transitional housing. What is becoming more visible, however, are faith-based organizations that have expanded their outreach and involvement in their communities by offering financial literacy programs, credit repair, apprenticeships, entrepreneurship seminars and other subject matters not ordinarily associated with religious institutions.

Our founders did not envision a day when non-Christians would lead our land. Fortunately, the entire New Testament was written during a period in which Christians were a minority faith. Many researchers have lamented about the “post-Christian” style that America exhibits today. Yet, the Scriptures give us clear guidelines on how to operate in this kind of environment.

The argument alleging the Founding Fathers’ support for a wall between faith and government is actually based on a single letter; Not a constitutional amendment; Not a proclamation or an executive order; Not a law passed by the newborn Congress; Not even an official memo.