Author

Andrew Hairston

Minister Andrew Reginald Hairston is a Baptist minister, lawyer, and co-chair of the Austin Democratic Socialists of America. A Black socialist who lives and works in the American South, he serves in leadership at Ebenezer Third Baptist Church in Austin, Texas, and ministers at ACTS Community Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. His work sits at the meeting point of Black liberation theology, prison abolition, internationalism, socialist politics, and organizing.

Andrew's Latest Articles

Racial Capitalism Broke My Family. The Church Basement Put It Back Together.

By Andrew Hairston ● Black Liberation Theology ● September 21, 2026

Black people are growing lonelier as we age, and capitalism is the reason. In the first essay of the Defender’s Black Liberation Theology series, Minister Andrew Hairston, Baptist minister and co-chair of Austin DSA, writes about the family he lost in court, the Black socialist ministers who came before him, and why grief belongs in the pews and the organizing meeting rather than alone at home.