"No justice, no peace" is a political slogan which originated during protests against acts of ethnic violence against African Americans.

Linguist Ben Zimmer writes that use of the slogan "No justice, no peace" during protests goes back as far as the 1986 killing of Michael Griffith.

[1] Griffith, a Trinidadian immigrant, and three friends, all black, were assaulted by a mob of white youths in the Howard Beach, Queens, New York City.

[2] In 2014, civil-rights activist Al Sharpton recounted: "In the midst of the protest, someone yelled the slogan, 'No justice, no peace'.

"[3] Other sources suggest that the phrase was actually popularized by activist Robert "Sonny" Carson, who is quoted on February 12, 1987 as stating, "'No justice!

[1] In the conditional interpretation, the slogan is rendered as an "if-then" statement, which implies that peaceful action is impossible without justice, and which urges citizens to demonstrate against injustice even if doing so results in violence.

[1]After the 2014 shooting of Tamir Rice, journalist Glen Ford wrote: More than just a threat against Power, the slogan brings clarity of purpose to the participants in the movement.

"[3] Yuvraj Joshi traces a longer history of "peace-justice claims" made by activists including Martin Luther King Jr., Bayard Rustin and A. Philip Randolph.