Examines the efforts of two black ministers, Egbert Ethelred Brown and Lewis A. McGee, to carry Unitarianism into the black community.

Black Pioneers in a White Denomination

Mark D. Morrison-Reed

Skinner House

Dark blue softcover, [xvi] + 368 pages, index, bibliography, chronology, endnotes, chapters by 36 contributors, 24 b/w figures and photos, with captions.

Darkening the Doorways: Black Trailblazers and Missed Opportunities in Unitarian Universalism

The foremost scholar of African-American Unitarian Universalist history presents this long-awaited analysis of the denomination's civil rights activism in Selma, Alabama, in 1965. Selma represented a turning point for Unitarian Universalists. In answering Martin Luther King Jr.'s call to action, they shifted from passing earnest resolutions about racial justice to putting their lives on the line for the cause. Morrison-Reed traces the long history of race relations among the Unitarians and the Universalists leading up to 1965, exploring events and practices of the late nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century. He reveals the disparity between their espoused values on race and their values in practice. And yet, in 1965 their activism in Selma involving hundreds of ministers and the violent deaths of Rev. James Reeb and Viola Liuzzo at last put them in authentic relationship with their proclaimed beliefs. With rigorous scholarship and unflinching frankness, The Selma Awakening provides a new way of understanding Unitarian Universalist engagement with race and offers an indispensable new resource for anyone interested in UU history.

The Selma Awakening

Skinner House Books

Mark D. Morrison-Reed, the preeminent scholar of black Unitarian Universalist history, presents this long-awaited chronicle and analysis of the events of the Black Empowerment Controversy, which rocked Unitarian Universalism in the late sixties and continues to reverberate. It was a time of revolution, of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. Like the country, the young Unitarian Universalist Association was forced to reckon with demands for change and found itself fractured by conflict about the implications of a commitment to racial justice. Morrison-Reed synthesizes decades of research and extensive interviews to present a nuanced and suspense-filled drama about Unitarian Universalism's great crisis of faith. As he writes, 'Perhaps wisdom can be gleaned from the pain and upheaval of those years, a wisdom that will be of use today in a new era.' Revisiting the Empowerment Controversy represents a completion of the historical arc Morrison-Reed has traced since the publication of Black Pioneers in a White Denomination.

Revisiting the Empowerment Controversy: Black Power and Unitarian Universalism

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mark D. Morrison-Reed. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Mark D. Morrison-Reed

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mark D. Morrison-Reed. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Black Pioneers in a White Denomination

Darkening the Doorways: Black Trailblazers and Missed Opportunities in Unitarian Universalism

The Selma Awakening

Revisiting the Empowerment Controversy: Black Power and Unitarian Universalism