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By John T. Crestwell, Jr.
May 4, 2003
Good morning friends. It was my attempt to make you feel as if you
were back in the sixties in this service. I know many of you were
very active in the struggles of that time and I hope this service
thus far has provided you time to reflect on the highs and lows of
that period in history—a very exciting and challenging time.
I want to go back to the sixties now, during a very difficult time
in our UU history. It was 1965. Well, I wasn’t born yet so I might
be making this up! No, I have utilized the UUA’s archives to make
sure the story is accurate.
Okay. 1965. The Civil Rights movement was reaching its apex. Many
had lived and died for the cause of justice, so that Black
people—all people could have the rights that we are all entitled to.
Many of you marched and protested and wrote letters arguing to the
powers that be why all humanity deserves the right to life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness.
This same year a man named James Reeb, a Unitarian Universalist,
would go to Selma to fight for the rights of African-Americans only
to be killed by a group of White men who hated the idea of
integration. The call went out and many of our ministers were
inspired to get active in the struggle. The Reeb tragedy was also
the impetus for another idea that very nearly tore our young
Association apart.
By 1967, there was a new grassroots movement growing called the
“Black Power Movement”. It was supported by mostly Blacks along with
many liberal Caucasian Americans. What was this “Black Power
Movement”? It was essentially the antithesis to what many called
“White Supremacy” or “White Power”. The thought was African
Americans lacked political and economic power and as a result there
was vast miseducation, misrepresentation and oppression, which
accounted for a 40% poverty rate in the Black community at that
time. Ignorance bred ignorance. And so, many like Stokley Carmichael
sought to create a nation within a nation of independent,
self-governing African Americans who could be separate but equal to
White Americans. They felt integration came too soon; that Blacks
needed time to heal their historical wounds.
In many ways, the Black Power Movement clashed with what Dr. King
was attempting to do with the nonviolent Civil Rights movement. I
guess it was inevitable that the idea of “Black Power” would reach
our very liberal, open-minded UU doors.
The UUA’s Commission on Religion and Race called a meeting in New
York, City to discuss issues relating to the Civil Rights and Black
Power movements. Many Blacks attended but because of the racial
climate in America they were not trusting of many of the White UU’s
in the meeting. They grew disgruntled, left the meeting and formed
another group—The BUUC, Black Unitarian Universalist Caucus. They
developed a list of quote “non-negotiable demands” to be submitted
to the UUA Board of Trustees. They asked the board to form the B.A.C.,
the Black Affairs Council, a group made up of mostly Blacks, some
were UU’s, most were community activists. They created a list of
demands that basically asked the UUA to give them $1-million dollars
over four years, $250,000 per year, to be used at their discretion
to change the financial and political scope of African Americans.
By the next General Assembly in 1968 in Cleveland, Ohio, it was time
for B.A.C. to state their case in full. But they met opposition by
another group bent on integration and not separation called the
Black and White Alternative, later change to Black and White Action
(BAWA). The UUA faced many rough days. Do we support a group of
mostly African Americans who are right regarding their economic and
social oppression, or do we support this other group who are
preaching the “beloved community”?
B.A.C., I assume, was first in the door and so they left the GA
having had their proposal accepted. The vote was 836 to 326. During
the course of the year protests continued by the opposition who felt
the UUA was breaking their own principles by supporting a separatist
group. Letters were written, phone calls made, threats given. Many
left the church. Add to this internal financial problems by the UUA,
and alleged accounting irregularities by BAC, and by 1969, at the GA
in Boston, the UUA could not continue its original agreement with
the Black Affairs Council. They revised the proposal to
$1-million-dollars over five years or $200,000 each year. They also
gave $50,000 to the Black and White Action organization. B.A.C
decided to protest this move by asking for a new agenda to be
adopted at the GA, which excluded BAWA. They were also extremely
aggressive, protecting microphones not allowing others to speak, and
eventually by walking out of the General Assembly, some 200 to 300
African Americans, among others. Can you imagine the sight? Maybe
some of you were there?
This power struggle lasted another year and that is about it... By
1970, the UU church was still in turmoil over this issue. You have
some who were sympathetic, even guilty over the plight of African
Americans, while others were equally sympathetic but wanting a
synthesis to the “White Power” and “Black Power” ideas. There were
people who believed in the utopian “beloved community”. But the
B.A.C. folk felt that the Black and White Action group attempted to
nullify their power and thus B.A.C. saw them as just another group
organized to oppress Black people. BAWA saw the dream of King where
we could judge people by the content of their character and not the
color of their skin. One group said, “Here is life as it is.” The
other said, “Here is life as it should be.” Oh, you can see the
virtues and vices on both sides.
The UUA, formed in 1961, an infant among denominations, made a life
decision. They decided not to choose sides thus they pulled all
funding for both groups. Supposedly, after 1969, more than 1,000
African Americans left the UU Church. Many Whites left too. All were
disenfranchised and confused. All thought they were doing the right
thing. All were victims of time, place, and circumstance.
The question is, are there any lessons here? I’ll get to that. But I
am thinking right now that we, as an Association, are still reeling
from these events over 35 years ago. We have not reconciled this
issue of race in our denomination. African Americans make up just 1%
of our numbers. In the clergy there are only two active
fellowshipped Black ministers. I have been told that in the last ten
years we have lost over fifteen African American preachers. Some
were let go, most left on their own. One might see this and call us
a racist church. I don’t believe that. Some may say that we are
“particular” and just may not fit the African American religious
psychology. I don’t know about that. Some may say we are elitist and
are a special interest group. Remember, we call ourselves the “Free
Church” as if everyone else is enslaved. I don’t know… I think we,
as UU’s, are like America. We are as wonderful as the promises made
in our constitution but our hidden fears have dimmed the lights that
we had hoped would illumine the minds of the world. And so, we still
have a ways to go—miles to go until we sleep.
So, what can we learn from this history lesson? First, there should
not be any such thing as race. For me, it is illusion made reality.
It is overrated and given too much credence. We are culturally
different but biologically we are 99.9% homoousios “of the same
substance”. Now, I am not naive. I know many judge others based on
skin color, class, and culture. We are all different in many ways
from our complexion to personality but when we say or act as if our
skin color or something else gives us special privileges or rights
as individuals and a church, this is when we create a false
assumption. Many of you know my background is in advertising. We
would call this line of reasoning a “constructed mediated reality.”
Oppression is real. Miseducation and poverty are real too. Special
attention should continue to be given to minority groups who have
been historically underrepresented. Call it affirmative action if
you will or call it something else, but the breach must be repaired
if we are to be truly equal and truly free human beings.
Second, after dealing with the race issue, we can see clearly that
people are people. There are some who are like us, as UU’s, and
others who are not. But, if I am here in this church [Davies
Memorial Unitarian Universalist Church in Prince George's County,
Camp Springs, Maryland], there are others out there like me. And if
you are here, there are others out there like you. The problem with
the Black Power Movement is that it focused on color exclusively
because it felt society was focused on color and therefore they
should be too. The Black and White Action group tried to show them
an alternative but they came off as arrogant and elitist. By seeking
funding, the same thing B.A.C. was doing, by going after money, the
purity in their idea was lost and could never be reconciled.
This UU history is telling us to move beyond race. The great martial
artist Bruce Lee, using Taoist principles, pointed to the sky saying
to one of his young students, “Don’t look at the finger or you will
miss all the heavenly glory.” If we focus on White or Black and not
on the WE, we miss the glory!
When you reach out to a community, you reach out to people, no
matter the color. Of course, we’re in Prince George’s County, so we
have a large melting pot of mostly African Americans, we all know
that. So if we reach out, we know we will reach many Blacks but also
Hispanics, Asians, Pacific Islanders, Caucasian Americans, this
should not rattle us. The goal is to reach out to people. That is
keeping in line with UU principles. If our faith is about
recognizing and understanding people, then we must seek diversity;
we must seek pluralism. We learn more, we grow more when we
fellowship together. This is the beloved community. One of the major
issues I have with the Black Affairs Council and Black and White
Action, is they ignored the fact that Asians existed, Hispanics,
Pacific Islanders, and others. Life was just Black and White. This
is a fallacy, as we all know! This will never allow the beloved
community to become real in our midst. As King said well, “There is
little hope for us until we become tough-minded enough to break
loose from the shackles of prejudice, half-truths, and downright
ignorance."
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