While the beating of African-American citizens on the Edmund Pettus Bridge and the deaths of black Jimmie Lee Jackson and white UUs Reeb and Liuzzo galvanized Americans and led to congressional action, Selma marked a sea change in Unitarian Universalism. Unitarian Universalist Association. On the other hand, Norman, while conceding that to divide the denomination is never a good thing, if [the controversy] was the only way to shake us up to understand what the issues were, Id say it was a good thing. And Jack, who in a sense had paved the way for the controversy by agreeing to set aside a meeting room for black delegates at the Biltmore, wound up stating in a 1969 letter to a FULLBAC supporter that he still believed in black power but not in the antics of its supporters, white and black, in our denomination. Indeed, at one point he called their tactics fascist.. BAWA got neither funding nor affiliate status. It was the height of white condescension and paternalism. Now, as cities burned, there was no time to mediate differences of opinion. I still believe that they really didnt like the idea of black people deciding what to do with the money. Steven H. Hansen, UUA Now/UUA Archives, Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Darkening the Doorways: Black Trailblazers and Missed Opportunities in Unitarian Universalism, Racial Justice & Multicultural Ministries. Engage a leadership team to readSalsa, Soul, and Spiritby JuanaBordasand learn ways to build multicultural sensibility into congregational governance and life. "In Their Own Words," proceedings of a January 2001 historic reunion at Starr King School of the Black Unitarian Universalist Caucus/Black Affairs Council and FULLBAC, their white supporters. Jesse Jackson, then into the plenary session. Mwalimu Imara, an African-American UU minister who had been my youth group advisor in Chicago. . As to African-American attitudes, they were not monolithic. The meeting was inspiring and tumultuous. I remember Royce James, she states, who was one of the founding members of BLUU. Can you see how insulted I am that [you are] going to give me self-empowerment?. After the Biltmore conference the UUA Department of Social Responsibility received many angry letters and phone calls in response to which department director Jack circulated a letter to UU congregations. (A former minister, the Rev. Betty Seiden, a BAWA leader, said she resented FULLBAC intervention, telling the new group, You say that we blacks are supposed to be off getting ourselves equal to you. Mac notes that she ended up leaving the church because the more black liberation work I was doing, the less inviting the church became to me. Mac was surprised and excited to find a number of other Black Unitarian Universalists present at the Movement for Black Lives convening and they shared similar experiences with her. In the months before his assassination King was being pushed by younger supporters to abandon nonviolence and alliances with whites. A few weeks, later a white man was killed, and all Unitarians ran to Selma. Warren R. Ross (1926-2015) was a longtime contributing editor to UU World,a member of the Community Unitarian Church in White Plains, New York, and the author ofFunding Justiceand The Premise and the Promise. Victor Carpenter, now senior minister of the First Church in Belmont, MA. 24 Farnsworth Street | Boston, MA 02210 In 1967, racial rioting left 23 dead in Newark, 43 in Detroit. Cornelius McDougald, chair of the UUA Commission on Religion and Race and board chair of the Community Church of New York, Unitarian Universalist, called the meeting to order. I stayed on. The chief event of the 1967 conference was the formation of the Black Unitarian Universalist Caucus (BUUC), which was an attempt on the part of the black participants in the conference to set their own priorities and goals. And this is what, still today, she considers the great tragedy of the controversy. They were treated like dirt, and thats part of the reason we have never done what we should have to integrate our churches. Why has it been so difficult for the UUA to come to terms with what happened between 1967 and 1970? In addition, middle-class, Unitarian Universalist African Americans probably became suddenly (and painfully) aware of how disconnected they were from the black community. McDougald, an African American, refused to join, saying he was unwilling to submit to intimidation by blacks or whites. Thus began a split among black UUs that soon threatened to tear apart the denomination. . Full of rage and grief, and in reaction rather than by choice, many held white people collectively accountable for his death. UUA administration mismanaged BAC funding, and in1970 BAC disaffiliated from the UUA. If we divide along racial lines for one minute, Ill run out that door and youll never see me again.. You know they had these political analyses that are void of an understanding of structural and systemic oppressionthey pull out of an ahistorical vacuum. Like Leslie Mac, the lunch that Gardner attended at the BLM convening in Cleveland with other Black UUs was eye opening and raised an important question that remains a central one for BLUU: how can we make a home that is unapologetically black and makes room for a diversity of black experiences andperspectives and viewpoints and is also theologically UU? This question led to Gardner, Mac, and others to found BLUU in August 2015. Like we must be working as part of a broader Movement for Black Lives, and, you know, thats just very important to usand in solidarity with other movements for justice. One way they do this is by showing up and being there for protests, demonstrations, and other activities that are part of the movement. The only question I still remember is, Would you have joined BAC [the Black Affairs Council] in walking out of the 1969 Boston General Assembly? I was eloquently mealy-mouthed and secretly glad I had not been there. In October 1967, I was a freshman at Beloit College when my mother flew to New York City to participate in the Emergency Conference on the UU Response to the Black Rebellion, held at the Biltmore Hotel. In our little UU corner of the world, lifelong friendships crumbled, marriages dissolved, careers were ended . BLUU is very central to my understanding and support of Black Lives Matter. The BAC responded by disaffiliating from the UUA, and the 1970 General Assembly voted to stop funding the BAC, having distributed only $450,000 of the $1 million promised in 1968. Is there a summing up? . Here are some "on ramps" to discussions about race, racism, and white supremacy. Along with these pioneers, Black members of the denomination founded the Black Unitarian Universalist Caucus (BUUC) in the late 1960s in an attempt to make the denomination more responsive to the demands of the Black Power Movement. Obviously there was total racial injustice in our country, and still is. Henry Hampton, UUA director of information, arrived from Boston on the same plane as Reeb. Some were chosen by district executives; others were UUA and UU Service Committee staff, committee members, black theological students, and observers from other faiths. After one hundred years of squandered opportunities, the consequences came home to roost. Full Recognition and Funding of the Black Affairs Council (FULLBAC). They came to a better understanding of the whole world through the BAC. Lena Gardner notes that goal is the one area where all of us are very aligned as far as on the OC (Organizing Collective). Copyright 1996-2023 Unitarian Universalist Association.All Rights Reserved. But the BACs disaffiliation could not have been about the money alone. Anyway, I wasnt a Unitarian Universalist because I thought they were nonracist. Those, highly condensed, are some key factsand facts dont lie, supposedly. As they talked, they tapped into the raw emotion hidden behind middle-class reasonableness. But they dont tell the whole truth, either. These stories are suitable for a congregations Time for All Ages and can be read at home as bedtime stories as well. White supremacy isthe idea that white people are better and more deserving of wealth, power, and privilege than people of color. class="nav-link p-0 system-email">, UPLIFT: Love and Solidarity with Trans and Nonbinary People, What I Am Learning from My White Grandchildren -- Truths About Race, Create spaces forconversation about race. First, he listed the callers and letter writers criticisms of the black caucus: that it was not merely separatist but racist; that it used totalitarian methods; and that it spoke for only a fraction of black Unitarian Universalists. . They were ostracized and criticized in the most horrifying way. When the meeting divided along racial lines, Hopkins resigned, issuing a statement that read in part: The conference. Flounder we did. The balance shifted. Carrying the Living Tradition of Unitarian Universalism Meadville Lombard Theological School nurtures learners from diverse faith traditions to embody the collaborative work of liberation through congregational and community leadership. Thank you for this article. My mother felt this way and left her post at the University of Chicago to teach at predominantly black Kennedy-King Community College. This, too, proved controversial. . Unitarian Universalism includes specifically people-of-color spacesfor faith development, pastoral and community support, leadership development, and more. Even Reebs death did not evoke the same emotions from all UUs. . BLACK LIVES of UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISM (BLUU) We support the transformative work and vision of BLUU and encourage participation in BLUU community and events - including monthly BLUU online worship - sacred space created by and for Black people. 1. Seek ways to amplify and incorporate the voices of people of color in all aspects of congregational life. Robert West as UUA president, defeating the Rev. Author Interview with Lena Gardner, December 18, 2018; Author Interview with Leslie Mac, August 30, 2018. Read how six leaders in Unitarian Universalism answer this question. Among the biggest regions of Italy, there is one region where in a single territory there is a wide range of high quality wines, both white and red, pretty appreciated abroad as well: we are talking about Lombardy. Throughout the late 1960s, Black Panther and police violence made headlines. is nothing less than an unwillingness to compromise, apologize for, or explain away a deep and abiding commitment that set me on the path I have followed ever since. That moment in his life enabled him to define himself. BAC was officially disbanded in 1979. Portraying the empowerment controversy as an institutional failure is short-sighted and misleading. Author Interview with Takiyah Nur Amin, August 22, 2018; Author Interview with Leslie Mac, August 30, 2018. Like America, Unitarian Universalism has been pushed forward in large and small ways by many prophetic voices. Follow further suggestionsonthis web pageto become a moremulticulturallyadept UU congregation. Two shocks jolted the Unitarian Universalist Association soon after its formation. This collection consists of records of and related to the activities of the UUA's Black Unitarian Universalist Caucus, (BUUC)/Black Affairs Council (BAC), Full Recognition and Funding of BAC (FULLBAC), and the Black and White Alternative (BAWA) with emphasis on Black Empowerment. As the conference got underway, 30 or so Black delegates withdrew into a private room, forming what eventually became the Black Unitarian Universalist Caucus. They made up 25 percent of a gathering in a denomination of which they comprised only 1 percent, hailing from the urban churches in a faith community that was becoming more and more suburban. For blacks, the familiar denominational racial routines echoed the empty promise of forty acres and a mule made to the freed slaves. See the Greenpeace five-point plan,"5 Things You Can Do to Confront White Supremacy Right Now.". We were patronizing and paternalistic, betraying the blacks who had all along been members of our churches. Thousands were born again. They created a list of nonnegotiable demands which they presented to the Emergency Conference, asking that they be accepted or rejected without debate. While preparing a version of this essay that appears in my new book, Darkening the Doorways: Black Trailblazers and Missed Opportunities in Unitarian Universalism, I solicited the opinion of a respected colleague. Circuit Court judge who later became solicitor general of the United Statesthreatened to resign if the caucus demands were met, trustee Carleton Fisher said that if they were not met, it would rather conclusively indicate that we have lost touch completely with the very ground of our faith as Unitarian Universalists. The Black Unitarian Universalist Caucus, which had demanded that the board vote its proposals up or down without amendment, responded to the vote by urging its supporters to boycott the UUA Annual Fund. They were violently turned back by state police, and King sent a telegram to leaders of all US denominations asking for support. July 1, 1968 BE IT RESOLVED: That the Unitarian Universalist Association Board of Trustees and Administration recognize and finance a Black Affairs Council which will serve to suggest and implement programs to improve the conditions of black Unitarian Universalists and black people in America. A culture of white supremacy perpetuates itself by marginalizing people of color. There was such confusion and turmoil over that that a recess was called, and I went to find out where the hell they were. While that organization lasted just six years, it provided a model for the contemporary Black Lives UU movement. I joined VISTA to work in the black community. When the full conference finally reconvened, it accepted the black caucus demands, though some participants left in protest of them.
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