Slavery’s longevity depended on good people’s willing silence and complicity

Evidence

I firmly believe that the evil institution of American chattel slavery persisted for over four hundred years because good people chose to remain silent or turn a blind eye. Silence is violence; silence is complicity. Dr. King knew this; so did Bishop Moore. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 885

Categorization

• DEFINE: The aphorism ‘silence is violence; silence is complicity’ grounds the book’s central moral argument about how institutions hold stolen things.