The Imperium
The Imperium is an all Black community of anarchists who are sick and tired of the systemic injustice that their government has used to keep them oppressed (any cursory glance at US history will show this is absolutely the truth). The community is defined by an underground organization, an awareness of racial injustice, and an urgent desire for justice. The question of the novel is about a sense of justice. What does such an abstract desire for justice look like when it is manifested in concrete reality?
Justice as wisdom
The first portrait of justice is the depiction of wisdom. Education is part of the establishment of wisdom in the novel, because well-educated men are consistently the best leaders in the community, and they want to share their knowledge (an important detail). They want to re-enfranchise the people slowly by teaching them, knowing that knowledge is power. They are wise because they think ahead, understanding the future in terms of goals and strategies.
Justice as vengeance
The second portrait of justice is vengeance. There is enough shared resent, hatred, humiliation, and pain among the community that they are easily swayed by inflammatory rhetoric. They don't see that their emotions are being exploited by powerful men (Belgrade in particular who represents this point of view) just so those individuals can gain more power for pride's sake. They are motivated to violence because their thirst for vengeance feels like a logical response to the injustices that their community has suffered.
Time
The wise leaders are urgently attempting to show the value of longevity, whereas the selfish leaders are willing to create a false sense of urgency. The dilemma shown through this imagery is the emergence of patience. In other words, the situation is complex enough that there is no way that the problems facing them (and the state of Texas more broadly) can be fixed through rash behavior done quickly. That is a recipe for disaster, but the people don't want to be patient, because they have suffered already for hundreds of years. The lost time is their motivation to not waste any more time, making patience a doubly frustrating option.
