RESISTANCE AND TRANSFORMATION
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Adults
WORKSHOP 11: CIVIL RIGHTS
BY BY REV. COLIN BOSSEN AND REV. JULIA HAMILTON
© Copyright 2011 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/29/2014 11:22:05 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
I am more sorry than I can say that your fellowship is again being caught in the grinders of the advance of history in the south. I hope desperately that the group will not suffer unduly as the result of the events in which our people are participating in Jackson and Mississippi. On the other hand, I do not see how we could really avoid participating in this as we do have a stake in this with those people being persecuted and we must stand at this point or allow ourselves to be classified with the group of those who look on, but do very little. — Reverend Clifton Hoffman, writing to the president of the congregation of the First Unitarian Church in Jackson, Mississippi in 1966
Many Unitarian Universalists are familiar with the work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, the 1965 march in Selma, Alabama, and the violent deaths of African American civil rights protester Jimmie Lee Jackson, Unitarian Universalist minister Rev. James Reeb, and Unitarian Universalist laywoman Viola Liuzzo. Many Unitarian Universalists know that hundreds of ministers and laypeople from around the United States traveled to the South to participate in marches, protests, and the "Freedom Rides" that heralded the first big push to end legal segregation in America. We are rightly proud of the many Unitarian Universalists who realized their belief in the inherent worth and dignity of all people made working for civil rights a moral imperative. However, congregations and ministers in the South faced a set of choices that went beyond individual conscience and discernment. Threats of physical violence and financial ruin loomed over any effort to integrate public spaces. Organized opposition to integration was part of the system, from the street-level violence of the Ku Klux Klan to the legal violence perpetrated by many county courtrooms. Faced with these dilemmas, Southern congregations responded in many different ways. As the Rev. Gordon Gibson wrote in his history of Southern Unitarian Universalists in the Civil Rights era:
There were places where Unitarian Universalists folded their tents and silently stole away in the night. There were Unitarian Universalists who accommodated deeply to the dominant society, maintaining only a mild and intensely private religious deviation from the social norm. The most typical response, however, was for Unitarian Universalists to learn how to live in some degree of tension between their core beliefs on the one hand and, on the other hand, the beliefs and practices deemed acceptable by southern society. If the society was closed, we were a place of openness. This stance was not easy to maintain.
This workshop looks at some ways Southern Unitarian Universalist congregations responded to the struggle for integration and civil rights. Participants explore the consequences of taking a public stance in a deeply divided society and ask how much they or their congregation might risk to take a position of conscience on a divisive social issue?
To ensure you can help adults of all ages, stages, and learning styles participate fully in this workshop, review these sections of the program Introduction: "Accessibility Guidelines for Workshop Presenters" in the Integrating All Participants section, and "Strategies for Effective Group Facilitation" and "Strategies for Brainstorming" in the Leader Guidelines section.
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Welcoming and Entering | 0 |
Opening | 10 |
Activity 1: Integration Case Study — New Orleans | 20 |
Activity 2: The Very Real Danger | 20 |
Activity 3: The Cost | 25 |
Faith in Action: Our Congregation's History in the Civil Rights Era | |
Closing | 15 |
Alternate Activity 1: Small Acts of Great Courage | 25 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Read Leader Resource1, Southern Unitarian Universalists in the Civil Rights Era. How much of this history were you aware of?
Consider this statement of the Reverend Gordon D. Gibson:
These stories do not mean, "Unitarian Universalists led the civil rights movement." The Movement was a movement of, by, and for African Americans, only some of whom were Unitarian Universalist. An accurate history of the Movement could be written without using the words "Unitarian Universalist."
In this workshop, keep in mind the differences between the daily life of the Unitarian Universalists, mostly white, who supported civil rights, and the lives of the African Americans, both Unitarian Universalist and not, who lived under segregation. Think about the ways your life situation has affected the way you have engaged with social justice issues. Have you ever felt compelled to take up a cause when doing so would radically alter your day-to-day existence? If so, in what ways was that liberating and empowering for you? In what ways did it constrain you? Discuss these questions with your co-facilitator.
Before you lead the workshop, take time to complete this sentence: "At the end of this workshop, I hope the participants leave feeling... "
WORKSHOP PLAN
WELCOMING AND ENTERING
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
As participants enter, invite them to sign in, put on name tags, and pick up handouts. Direct their attention to the agenda for this workshop.
OPENING (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite a participant to light the chalice while you lead a unison reading of Reading 449 from Singing the Living Tradition, "We hallow this time together by kindling the lamp of our heritage."
Lead the group in singing the hymn you have chosen.
Introduce this workshop using these or similar words:
This workshop explores the history of work for integration and civil rights in Southern Unitarian Universalist congregations, particularly in New Orleans, Louisiana (and Jackson, Mississippi, if the group will do Alternate Activity 1.). No matter where they lived during the 1960s, people had many reasons for participating or not participating in civil rights work. This can be a very emotional subject, especially for those who lived through it. Remember, we are all on a journey of learning about ourselves and our shared history. It can be difficult to let go of judgments about what we personally, or others, should or should not have done responding to the cry for integration and civil rights, but we ask that you do just that as we begin this workshop today.
Invite participants to close their eyes for a moment and consider the feelings and images that arise when they hear the term "desegregation." Ask participants to keep their eyes closed and share aloud one- or two-word responses. What feelings do participants associate with this era? What memories of places, names, or events arise?
Invite everyone to open their eyes. Then, read aloud this quote from the Rev. Gordon D. Gibson:
There were places where Unitarian Universalists folded their tents and silently stole away in the night. There were Unitarian Universalists who accommodated deeply to the dominant society, maintaining only a mild and intensely private religious deviation from the social norm. The most typical response, however, was for Unitarian Universalists to learn how to live in some degree of tension between their core beliefs on the one hand and, on the other hand, the beliefs and practices deemed acceptable by southern society. If the society was closed, we were a place of openness. This stance was not easy to maintain.
ACTIVITY 1: INTEGRATION CASE STUDY — NEW ORLEANS (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Say, in these or similar words:
The question of racial integration in Southern Unitarian Universalist congregations was raised before the Supreme Court 1954 school desegregation decision in Brown v. the Topeka Board of Education, and long before the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery. The First Unitarian Universalist Church in New Orleans accepted its first black member in 1949, but only years later did the congregation adopt an official policy of welcoming all people, regardless of race.
Distribute Handout 1, The New Orleans Story. Explain that the handout is drawn from documents written by a minister, the late Reverend Albert D'Orlando, to describe the process by which the congregation he served in the 1960s became an officially integrated church. Read the handout aloud. Then, solicit questions, comments, and observations about the process of integrating the New Orleans congregation, using these questions:
Allow ten minutes for this discussion.
Then, share the information that the vote to adopt a policy of integration was not the end of the story. Tell the group that in 1958, some members, feeling, among other things, that the congregation had gone too far in its engagement with the issue of civil rights, left to found another Unitarian fellowship in the city.
Share two quotes from Rev. D'Orlando. The first is from his Annual Report of 1959, describing the split in the congregation:
In the process of exploring there will be times when although we will stand shoulder to shoulder in the creative faith that is ours, we may not always see "eye to eye" on every issue. One of the wonderful things about the Unitarian movement is that it can encompass so many varying points of view and still be creative. It is in this spirit that the past year has seen the formation of a new Unitarian Fellowship in New Orleans. We are pleased for its members that their group is now underway, we wish for them all success in their effort, and we acknowledge that whatever else this represents, it cannot help but add to the strength of religious liberalism in our city.
The second quote is from Rev. D'Orlando's 1965 summary of his life's work. In it he explained the congregational split:
For the first eight years of my ministry here, the congregation was divided between a large majority anxious to fulfill its responsibility to the community and a small, but vocal, minority which felt that the church should not be involved in community issues, particularly in the sensitive area of race relations. Finally, in 1958, a group of 40 left the church to form its own Fellowship in the city. While we regretted their departure, and while we did all we could to prevent the split, we had no alternative but to grapple with the larger issue.
Ask participants to reflect:
Does knowing the New Orleans congregation later split change your response to the question: What does it mean to support a radical shift in congregational culture?
ACTIVITY 2: THE VERY REAL DANGER (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
If you have made copies of the story, distribute them and invite the group to read it. Or, present the story aloud.
Invite the group to take a minute to consider how the activities of Rev. D'Orlando and the First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans put the congregation, its members, and its minister at risk. After a minute, lead participants to name these risks. List them on newsprint.
Engage the group to discuss the potential danger of social justice work, using these questions as a guide:
ACTIVITY 3: THE COST (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Have participants brainstorm, on newsprint, a list of congregational social justice efforts that have cost the congregation money, either directly or indirectly. Then, invite each participant to pick an activity from the list and share why they think the effort was worth the money spent.
Distribute Handout 2, The Cost. Invite participants to read it silently. After all have finished, invite comments and observations about the financial costs that the New Orleans congregation faced as a result of their justice work. Point out that these efforts almost bankrupted the congregation, threatening its survival as an institution. Facilitate a discussion on the financial costs of justice work, using these questions:
CLOSING (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Make sure each participant has their journal and something to write with.
Invite participants to respond:
Think about the choices you have made in your life regarding engagement with social justice issues. How has your life situation—your age, your family situation, your gender, your gender expression, your ethnicity, your employment—affected the form your engagement has taken? Have you ever felt compelled to take up a cause, even though to do so might radically alter your day-to-day existence?
Allow ten minutes for writing in journals.
Invite a participant to come forward and extinguish the chalice as you say these words: "As we extinguish this chalice, may we let the light of our tradition kindle our hope for a better world."
Distribute Taking It Home and invite participants to continue to write in their journals between workshops.
FAITH IN ACTION: OUR CONGREGATION'S HISTORY IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS ERA
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Most congregations have stories about their involvement in efforts to build racial equality. What did your congregation do in the 1960s and 70s? More recently?
Research your congregation's history by visiting the congregation's archives and speaking with the minister and long-time members. You may wish to record your interviews and add the recordings to the archive.
Conversations about race can be difficult, and at times volatile. Consult with your minister about your findings and how best to present this information to the congregation at large. The group might prepare a newsletter or website article, a small group discussion after coffee hour, or even part of a worship service.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Take a few moments right after the workshop to ask each other:
Review the next workshop. Are there any questions to research or logistics to arrange between workshops? Make a list of who is responsible for which preparations and materials.
TAKING IT HOME
I am more sorry than I can say that your fellowship is again being caught in the grinders of the advance of history in the south. I hope desperately that the group will not suffer unduly as the result of the events in which our people are participating in Jackson and Mississippi. On the other hand, I do not see how we could really avoid participating in this as we do have a stake in this with those people being persecuted and we must stand at this point or allow ourselves to be classified with the group of those who look on, but do very little. — Reverend Clifton Hoffman, writing to the president of the congregation of the First Unitarian Church in Jackson, Mississippi in 1966
Watch one of these award-winning documentaries about Unitarian Universalist involvement in the Civil Rights era:
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: SMALL ACTS OF GREAT COURAGE (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
If participants do not already have Handout 3, distribute it and invite them to read it. Encourage them to underline, make notes, and write down questions.
Invite initial questions or comments. Then ask participants for their reactions to this quotation from the handout:
These stories do not mean, "Unitarian Universalists led the civil rights movement." The Movement was a movement of, by, and for African Americans, only some of whom were Unitarian Universalist. An accurate history of the Movement could be written without using the words "Unitarian Universalist." I think it would be missing some of the details, because there were small but crucial contributions by individuals and congregations which were Unitarian Universalist, but it could be done.
Lead a discussion:
RESISTANCE AND TRANSFORMATION: WORKSHOP 11:
STORY: THE REVEREND ALBERT D'ORLANDO FOUGHT RACISM IN NEW ORLEANS
Excerpted from a March 3, 1998 New Orleans Times-Picayune article by Mark Schliefstein as reprinted on the website of the annual D'Orlando Lecture on Social Justice.
... The Rev. (Albert) D'Orlando fought racism and segregation for many years and later opposed the Vietnam War. His house and church were firebombed in 1965. "He was a tremendous role model who believed that faith means nothing if you don't put your beliefs into action," said Martha Kegel, former executive director of the Louisiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. "He was a New Englander who came South and fought racism, and eventually, he became the conscience of the New Orleans community."
A native of Boston, the Rev. D'Orlando graduated from Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a master's degree in theology. After his ordination in 1945, he was named the minister of two small churches in New Hampshire. He came to New Orleans in 1950 and almost immediately moved to integrate his Jefferson Avenue church. Although a number of church members resigned, Kegel said, "He made the Unitarian Church into virtually the only place in white New Orleans where whites and blacks could meet together."
In 1956, he helped found the Louisiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 1958, he was ordered to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee after being identified as a member of the Communist Party by a New Hampshire homemaker. After the closed hearing, the Rev. D'Orlando said he had never been a member of the party. "His getting dragged before the committee clearly related to his civil rights stance," Kegel said. "At that time, any person who stood up for civil rights was a communist in (the committee's) eyes."
In 1960, as New Orleans prepared to deal with court-ordered school desegregation, the Rev. D'Orlando had his congregation set up a Freedom Fund to provide legal and other assistance to those fighting for desegregation. Within a few weeks, the fund had collected 25,000 dollars, largely from other Unitarian churches throughout the nation.
Also at his urging, the church's youth group participated in sit-ins at lunch counters on Canal Street, said his daughter, Lissa Dellinger. Two youngsters were arrested and charged with criminal anarchy; they were found guilty of criminal mischief and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Through the Rev. D'Orlando's leadership, the church raised money to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the convictions were thrown out, Dellinger said.
When the first black children integrated white public schools, the church provided financial assistance to white families who continued to send their children to school with the black children. In 1962, the church paid some of the legal expenses of two black students who filed a federal suit to integrate Tulane University. When Tulane officials agreed to admit the students, the church paid their registration fees and for their books. The church later paid the expenses of a New Orleans lawyer who represented civil rights workers in Mississippi.
The Rev. D'Orlando's civil rights activities resulted in many threats to himself and his family, he said in a speech several years ago. "It was not at all unusual for us to receive phone calls at 3 in the morning warning us that if we did not leave the house within 15 minutes, a bomb would destroy our home," he said. At midnight one Saturday in March 1965, his house was fire-bombed while he was working on a sermon he planned to deliver the next morning condemning similar bombings in Alabama. Two months later, the front of his church was destroyed by dynamite. The bombings were two of more than a dozen that occurred in New Orleans that spring. Authorities tied the bombing of his house to members of the United Klans of America, a wing of the Ku Klux Klan. Three men were convicted in the incident and sentenced to five years in prison.
RESISTANCE AND TRANSFORMATION: WORKSHOP 11:
HANDOUT 1: THE NEW ORLEANS STORY
Excerpts from "Albert D'Orlando: A Resume," "The New Orleans Story," and "The First Unitarian Church of New Orleans" by Rev. Albert D'Orlando. These documents are located in the "Albert D'Orlando" file at the Andover Harvard Library.
... The First Unitarian Church of New Orleans was born out of the heresy of Parson Theodore Clapp in 1833 (Parson Clapp had formerly been minister of the First Presbyterian Church of this city)....
New growth in the New Orleans church brought with it the problem that every liberal southern church must face; that of racial integration within the congregation itself, as well as in the larger community... Let me emphasize that this became a crucial issue at a time when it was still difficult for southerners to take an open stand on any aspect of racial integration. — from "Albert D'Orlando: A Resume")
First Church, New Orleans, had accepted its first Black member about a year before I arrived on the scene (1949). This was Mr. J.P. Bennett, who came from a long line of Unitarians in Providence, Rhode Island... On arrival in New Orleans he appeared at church one Sunday morning with a letter of recommendation from 25 Beacon Street.
Needless to say, this posed a considerable problem to the membership. At that time the church was not only segregated, it also had direct ties to Civil War ancestors, which, is understandable since the war had ended only 80 years earlier...
... Several months after my first sermon as new minister, two additional blacks appeared in church, together with letters transferring their membership from other Unitarian churches to First Church, New Orleans. One of them was J. Westbrook McPherson, a life-long Unitarian who had come from Phoenix to assume the position of Executive Director of the Urban League Chapter here. The other person was Miss Vernetta Hill, who had come from Omaha, Nebraska, to assume the position of Executive Director of the Black Branch of the Y.W.C.A...
It was the presence of McPherson and Hill that precipitated the ensuing controversy, because whereas Bennett was a shy, retiring sort of person who always sat in the rear pew (as the people here said at the time: "He knew his place, and kept to it"), McPherson and Hill sat wherever they pleased, much to the irritations of the 'die-hards.'" — from "The New Orleans Story")
Albert D'Orlando described the process and problems of integrating the church as follows:
I. Integration of the church. This occurred early in the 1950's, arousing the concern and opposition of some members of the congregation as well as anxieties and tensions of the entire membership.
Problems Involved:
A. The question of granting Blacks full membership, with all rights and privileges. This especially manifested itself by:
a. Opposition to having Blacks sit wherever they chose during Services.
b. Opposition to having them attend after-service Coffee, church dinners and other social activity.
c. Padlocking of the doors in China-closet, so that Blacks would not use Alliance China at social functions.
d. Cancellation of the Thanksgiving Day Dinner by President, after 2 Blacks had purchased tickets for the event.
B. Question of "how many Blacks shall we accept"... with the Board giving serious consideration to drawing a line at a given figure.
C. Opposition of enrollment of Black children in the Church School.
D. Drive to have members reduce pledges to 2 dollars, thus hoping to cripple the budget. — from "The First Unitarian Church of New Orleans"
The outcome of all this was a final report by the Denominational Commission (in 1954 or 1955) pointing out that in many ways we were not as far advanced on this matter as we had thought, and calling on societies throughout the association to move more forcefully on the issues. Meanwhile, our local Committee, with one dissenting vote, issued a report which pointed out to the Congregation that during the two years it had been studying the matter, integration had indeed become a fact in the church. Blacks had joined in considerably larger numbers; they were now participating in every aspect of church life... and were now genuinely accepted by all... with the exception of some of the original protesters... the Congregation, in a special meeting, voted with one dissenting vote... that "Henceforth membership in this congregation is and shall be open to all, regardless of race, point of origin or color of skin." — from "The New Orleans Story"
RESISTANCE AND TRANSFORMATION: WORKSHOP 11:
HANDOUT 2: THE COST
From the minutes of an annual meeting of The First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans, date unknown (sometime after 1966).
This financial information was provided to the congregation at an annual meeting, in order to explain the need to refinance the mortgage on the building. It describes the financial costs incurred by the congregation as a result of its social justice activities. Lines in italics are clarifications not found in the original document.
13.60 dollars per week for 7 years to finance a radio program, starting in 1950.
25,000 dollars Freedom Fund (This money was raised from outside sources, primarily from Unitarians across the country who donated to the cause.)
50,000 dollars from Arthur Miller and others to pay for civil rights cases (Ben Smith, a New Orleans lawyer and member of the congregation, was one of the only attorneys in the city who would take up civil rights cases. The congregation took an active role in legal action surrounding desegregation.)
100,000 dollars for a "Black Cultural Organization" (acted as a fiscal sponsor) (Because the church was one of the few places where blacks and whites could meet and share a meal together, the church building became a home to any number of organizations that could not find meeting spaces anywhere else.)
By 1965 Freedom Fund was exhausted.
Other considerations:
Summary: In 1967, the congregation had only 17,000 dollars in savings and owed 56,000 dollars.
RESISTANCE AND TRANSFORMATION: WORKSHOP 11:
HANDOUT 3: SOUTHERN UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS ERA — SMALL ACTS OF GREAT COURAGE
Excerpted and edited from a presentation by the Rev. Gordon D. Gibson under auspices of the Unitarian Universalist Historical Society at the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association, June 23, 2000, Nashville, Tennessee. Used with permission.
What was it like to be a Unitarian Universalist living in the Deep South in the Civil Rights era? For many people on many days it was much the same as being a Unitarian Universalist anywhere in the U.S. during the 1950s and 1960s. But sometimes it became more complicated and less comfortable than that.
When Paul and Thelma Worksman moved from the Washington area to Mississippi they bought a house in Clinton, just west of Jackson. Paul was on the front lawn, supervising the unloading of the moving van, when a car pulled up. A man emerged from the car, walked up to Paul and introduced himself as the minister of the Morrison Heights Baptist Church. He invited the Worksmans to attend Morrison Heights Baptist. Paul thanked him for the invitation but said that they would be attending the Unitarian Universalist Church in Jackson. The man hesitated a moment and then said, "You know they shot the minister of that church." (Rev. Donald Thompson was shot by the Ku Klux Klan and wounded in August 1965).
We all remember the Rev. James Reeb, fatally injured during the voting rights campaign in Selma, but some southern Unitarian Universalists have especially vivid and poignant memories. The Rev. Charles Blackburn, a native southerner serving the Huntsville, Alabama Fellowship, remembers telling northern colleagues, including Reeb, that they were safe within the neighborhood right around Brown's Chapel A.M.E. Church but not outside it; a few hours later Reeb was attacked after eating in an African American restaurant outside that immediate neighborhood. Jean Levine of Atlanta remembers that Reeb had his suitcase in the trunk of her car that afternoon, ready to go back to the Atlanta airport, but then pulled the suitcase out to stay another day or two. H.A. "Bob" Ross, then of Miami, remembers sitting at dinner with Reeb, but turning left as he departed the restaurant and later hearing on the car radio that Reeb, who had turned right, had been attacked and critically injured.
A 1955 service held by the Baton Rouge Unitarians on the lynching of Emmett Till, (a 14-year-old Chicago boy murdered in Mississippi after reportedly whistling at a white woman), was attended by about ten "southern gentlemen," dressed in dark suits and dark hats. That was almost half the attendance that day. A few months later the YWCA told the congregation that the space they had been renting (from the organization) for (Sunday) services was needed for YWCA programming [and they would have to vacate], although there was no evidence of the Y doing any new programming in that space for years to come.
In Knoxville in 1952 the Ohio State Symphonic Choir, scheduled to sing at the University of Tennessee, could not be fed on campus because it was an integrated group. The Tennessee Valley Unitarian Church fed the visiting choir.
Those are a few vignettes. What was the larger picture?
If you looked at the Deep South—the states that had formed the Confederacy—a century or a century and a half ago, you would have seen a scattering of Universalist congregations in each state, but many states with no Unitarian presence. This meant that the South in the 1950s and 1960s, the Civil Rights era, was to a great extent just beginning to encounter Universalist and Unitarian ideas and persons with much frequency. This was a fateful time for liberal ideas and principles to be coming to the fore in this part of the world. The dominant social ideas of the South in the 1950s and 1960s were of control, continuity, conformity, hierarchy. The ethos and core of Unitarianism and Universalism elevated values of freedom, personal responsibility, unfettered truth-seeking, and affirmation of human dignity. The dominant values of this religious movement were, to put it mildly, in conflict with the dominant values of the region. That conflict is what I will be talking about.
... the South, ruled by a white power structure and pervaded by an ideology widely shared by its white residents, was facing a crisis in ideas and in social patterns at just the time that Unitarians, Universalists, and soon Unitarian Universalists began to be a visible and contrarian presence after World War II. The white South felt besieged and was in a mood to strike back at those perceived as agents of change, as "outside agitators," or as "traitors." Persons operating on the principles that were inherent to Universalism, Unitarianism, and then Unitarian Universalism were almost inevitably a challenge to southern mores and social patterns.
What was the result of this conflict? The result could have been Unitarian Universalists fading away, retreating yet again from the South even as the Unitarians in particular had previously avoided the South.
The result could have been Unitarian Universalists finding that accommodation to society was really more important than their own professed values; this was certainly something that had happened in many other religious traditions.
Either of these results would have been understandable, and in some instances one or both happened. There were places where Unitarian Universalists folded their tents and silently stole away in the night. There were Unitarian Universalists who accommodated deeply to the dominant society, maintaining only a mild and intensely private religious deviation from the social norm.
The most typical response, however, was for Unitarian Universalists to learn how to live in some degree of tension between their core beliefs on the one hand and, on the other hand, the beliefs and practices deemed acceptable by southern society. If the society was closed, we were a place of openness.
This stance was not easy to maintain. It led some congregations and many individuals to what I would characterize as "small acts of great courage."...
The ministers who served these congregations in this era are heroes of mine. They stood tall when it would have been easier to keep their heads down. They lived and mostly thrived in places that most of their colleagues avidly avoided. They grew vibrant congregations.
... Donald Thompson served the First Unitarian Church of Jackson, Mississippi, 1963-65. In August of 1965 he was shot by the Ku Klux Klan and critically injured. A few weeks later the settlement director in the UUA Department of Ministry wrote inquiring whether "you think the time is now for you to move to a more comfortable situation or a different climate." Don replied from his hospital room:
Thanks for your offer of assistance in placement. If any of the Miss. congregations feel that my presence is a danger to them, I'll take advantage of your offer. Otherwise, I feel that I ought to try to stay here for the next seven or eight years. ("I should live so long.") I realize that the same night riders may be out to finish the job, but why have a successor who would also be a target. The Klan probably is quite upset because, for once, their execution didn't take. Maybe they'll do something about it. Yet one cannot live on the basis of fear... It takes courage in Jackson to join a liberal church. Yet I believe that my continuing after the shooting incident might attract some worthwhile members.
As it worked out, a couple of months later Don accepted the advice of local friends, corroborated by the FBI, and left the state of Mississippi on a few hour's notice before the Klan again attempted to kill him.
... (Stories like this) continue through the Carolinas and Virginia, over into Louisiana, down into parts of Florida. In most of the places where there were Unitarian Universalists there were at least some of these stories.
These stories do not mean, "Unitarian Universalists led the civil rights movement." The Movement was a movement of, by, and for African Americans, only some of whom were Unitarian Universalist. An accurate history of the Movement could be written without using the words "Unitarian Universalist." I think it would be missing some of the details, because there were small but crucial contributions by individuals and congregations which were Unitarian Universalist, but it could be done.
Although the overwhelming thrust of the Movement was the liberation of African Americans, there was a secondary effect, and that was the liberation of European Americans. Unitarian Universalists were among the first liberated, and among the key liberators.
What these stories—stories of congregations, stories of individuals, stories of acts, small and large, of great courage—what these stories do mean is that Unitarian Universalists often provided an early crack in the "closed society" of the white South. In response to an ideology allied with religious fundamentalism, we were religiously open and tolerant. In response to an ideology that depicted some people as of great worth and others as of little worth, we proclaimed the worth and dignity of all persons.
We were a crack in the "closed society," but not without cost. What was done was often at a high price for some. Those of us who are white were often too radical to have much of any support from other whites. But we were also too white to merit much support or attention from African Americans. There were psychological scars. There were family ties sundered. There were jobs lost. There were sometimes physical attacks. Those are very real costs.
But there were benefits as well. The benefits were less tangible, but they were real. At base, I think the benefit obtained by Unitarian Universalists, young and old, lay and clergy, was the sense that they were in fact living out their faith. Their integrity was intact. They were making real some small part of the ideal world that they imagined.
FIND OUT MORE
Online, find "Southern Unitarian Universalists in the Civil Rights Era — A Story of Small Acts of Great Courage (at www.uuhs.org/CustomContentRetrieve.aspx?ID=1142391&A=SearchResult&SearchID=304014&ObjectID=1142391&ObjectType=35)," a presentation by the Rev. Gordon D. Gibson under auspices of the Unitarian Universalist Historical Society at the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), June 23, 2000, Nashville, Tennessee.
Read "Living in Nineveh (at uuma.site-ym.com/resource/collection/20FCD5D4-D494-4817-93F4-D4264C5B8ACD/BirminghamLecture4.3.pdf)," a lecture by Rev. Gibson at the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association Convocation, March 10, 2002 in Birmingham, Alabama.
Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Movement 1964-1985 is an award-winning, 14-hour documentary series executive-produced by the late Henry Hampton, founder of Blackside, Inc. media production company and a former public information director of the UUA. Visit the PBS website for viewing and ordering information (at www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/) and a wealth of supplementary materials.
Home of the Brave (at www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/hob.html), distributed by Bullfrog Films, is a documentary about Viola Liuzzo, the only white woman murdered in the Civil Rights Movement, and why we hear so little about her. Told through the eyes of her children, the film follows the ongoing struggle of an American family to survive the consequences of their mother's heroism and the mystery behind her killing. Learn more and order the film here. (at www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/hob.html)
Call to Selma: Eighteen Days of Witness (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=557) is a first-hand account by Richard D. Leonard (Boston: Skinner House, 2002).