The Selma Awakening: How the Civil Rights Movement Tested and Changed Unitarian Universalism

Mark D. Morrison-Reed

Jan 2014 · Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

About this ebook

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.

About the author

 Rev. Dr. Mark D. Morrison Reed is the author and editor of several books, including Black Pioneers in a White Denomination, Darkening the Doorways: Black Trailblazers and Missed Opportunities in Unitarian Universalism, The Selma Awakening: How the Civil Rights Movement Tested and Changed Unitarian Universalism, and Revisiting the Empowerment Controversy: Black Power and Unitarian Universalism, all from Skinner House Books. He has served as co-minister of Unitarian Universalist congregations in Toronto and Rochester, New York, and as an affiliated faculty member at Meadville Lombard Theological School and the coordinator of the Sankofa Archive there. In 2019, Rev. Morrison-Reed received the Award for Distinguished Service to the Cause of Unitarian Universalism.