Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb

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  A Light Across the River

  A moonless night. A rowboat ride, about a mile, across an icy current toward the glow of a lantern on the far side of the river. Someone waiting there will be your next conductor. They'll guide you to a safe house as the Underground Railroad carries you north. ...
• Celebrating Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb

  Usually in February, for Black History Month; or in March, as Reeb was killed on 3/9/65 and Young died on 3/11/71. This service is an...

A Chorus of Faiths, High School Youth

• A Chorus of Faiths, High School Youth:

  By Hannah McConnaughay, Renee Ruchotzke

  The Chorus of Faiths program helps develop Unitarian Universalist youth as interfaith leaders. Youth explore values of service to our community and religious pluralism through stories from our Sources and personal storytelling, and coordinate an interfaith service.
• The March at Selma

  In February of 1965, the United States was at another turning point in the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Act had been passed in 1964, but critical rights were still not legally secured for African Americans. Black men and women routinely faced physical violence, biased "literacy tests,"...

Signs of Our Faith, Grades 2-3

• John L. Cashin, Witness for Justice

  One day in Alabama, in 1968, as farmers worked in their fields, a small airplane swooped into view. The farmers looked up wonderingly as...

Virtue Ethics

• Building Respect Reverend Joseph Jordan 1842-1901

  By Janeen K Grohsmeyer

  When Joseph Jordan (pronounced Jerden ) was born in Virginia in 1842, slavery was still legal. Most people of African descent were treated...

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  Black History of Unitarian Universalism

  By Susan Lawrence

  In February, Americans say the names and retell the stories of African Americans whose achievements and contributions helped to shape us as a nation. When we investigate our shared past, we learn more about who we are today.

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  Black History Month: A time to unlearn

  By Kenny Wiley

  As a child I learned that we had, mostly, overcome. Clues to a deeper truth hid in plain sight.
  Image credit: AP Photo/Charles Harrity, 1967
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  We are all bound up together

  By Kenny Wiley

  Frances E. W. Harper (1825–1911) challenged us to practice a religion of justice.
  Image credit: courtesy of the House Divided Project at Dickinson College

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  Reflections on "Lift Every Voice and Sing"

  By Aisha Ansano

  Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a time when particular songs get sung; one of them is "Lift Every Voice and Sing." It gets sung in school,...
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  To All Get Free Together

  By Chris Crass

  To become an anti-racist faith community, the key question for a white/white majority community is not “How do we get people of color to...
• The Bruise That Never Heals

  By Dawn Skjei Cooley

  Bruises are a part of roller derby — a celebrated part. It’s not uncommon for players to take pictures of their biggest, most colorful...
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  Wake Up!

  By Christian Schmidt

  Let us wake up. Not just from the Sunday morning exhaustion, from the wish for a few more drowsy minutes in bed. Let us wake up to this...
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  In Real Time

  By Jeannie Shero

  #‎BlackLivesMatter Let the only burning be the fire of commitment in our hearts, minds, hands, spirits in our community of faith. Live...
• Singing for Freedom

  By Martha Dallas

  Today, the congregation will be singing hymns from our hymnals which are particularly precious to us as Unitarian Universalists. But today...
• Let My People Go!

  By Christopher Buice

  Once upon a time there was a little girl named Rosa, who loved to read her Bible. One of her favorite stories was the story of Moses, and...
• Wake Up to Injustice

  By Gail Forsyth-Vail

  This story was created collaboratively by several religious educators. As you prepare to share it, read the 1966 Ware Lecture "Don't Sleep...
• Litany of the Generations

  By James (Jay) C Leach

  This is adapted from a litany by Gail Forsyth-Vail, who suggests the following to maximize the reading's power: Identify seventeen people...
• Speaking a History

  By Gail Forsyth-Vail

  This reading requires seventeen people who are able to come forward and represent the generations of African Americans in the British...
• We shall overcome

  By Jonalu Johnstone

  We shall overcome. When we can truly celebrate the diversity of contributions and talents offered by all people, we shall overcome hatred...
• The Inauguration of a New Day

  By Brent A Smith

  We retell the birth, life, and death of Dr. King to symbolize that it is not until humanity can measure the worth and meaning of a single life, that it can extend worth that to all souls. But, this is a new day. For more than nearly fifty years this culture has dwelt in grief over the loss of great...
• A Sermonic Letter to My Church to Commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday

  By Melissa Carvill-Ziemer

  On the cusp of this new day in our nation’s history, seems like everyone has something to say. I have been deluged with emails from the...
• Testifying (a reading for five voices)

  By Mark Hicks

  Frances, an African American woman: To be African-American in this country is to face racism throughout life, however subtle. The love of...
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  Extremists of Justice

  By Martin Luther King, Jr.

  The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing...
• A Network of Mutuality

  By Martin Luther King, Jr.

  We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice...
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  Peacemakers of a New World

  By Audette Fulbright Fulson

  We give thanks for the gift of the brief and powerful life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; yet it is through our faithful acts of compassion in the struggle for justice that we make our most powerful prayer.