In the book Revisiting the Empowerment Controversy: Black Power and Unitarian Universalism Mark D. Morrison-Reed, the preeminent scholar of black Unitarian Universalist history, presents this chronicle and analysis of the events of the 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.

Meadville Lombard Theological School has compiled a selection of companion resources to enrich, deepen, and broaden an understanding of the era in which the events of the Empowerment Controversy occurred. Mark Morrison-Reed's discussion questions on the Empowerment Controversy (PDF) are posted on the InSpirit Books and Gifts website.