Skeletons in oUUr Closet: A Unitarian Universalist History Class

Class description:
This class will explore the hidden histories of Unitarian, Universalism, and Unitarian
Universalism with regards to race and class. As Unitarian Universalists, we tend to tell our
history as a series of individuals choosing to stand on the right side of history. That is part of our
history, but it is not the full story. Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian Universalists have
always been deeply engaged in the world and as such have been complicit with or have
promoted systems of oppression. In this course, we will explore these episodes in our history
and recognize the imperfection of our denominational past.
Class Structure:
Chalice Lighting
Opening Reading
Check-in
Enrichment
Discussion of Reading
Closing: Extinguishing the Chalice
Each Session is Two Hour Long
Preparation:
As adult learners, participants take responsibility for their own learning and spiritual
development. (There are no grades or tests.) Each participant will be asked to offer
enrichment once during the course of the class. This can be a formal presentation, a personal
reflection, bringing in art that relates to the topic feel free to be creative. Please also bring at
least one question and/or observation about your reading to each session. Questions and
observations could arise from the following questions:
What surprised you?
What disturbed you?
What links this history to our faith today?
What should we learn from this part of our past?
What did you feel while reading?
How does this history affect your religious identity?
Course Outline:
Session 1: Opposition to the Great Awakening Emergent Unitarians and Classism
The Great Awakening was the first mass movement among Europeans in North America.
It took off in the 1730s through a series of revivals. The preaching appealed to emotions,

which led to a new worship style. Revivals aimed to change peoples heart, leading to a
new birth and transformed life. The movement believed in equality before God (all are
equally wretched.), which facilitated preaching to slaves and beginning of the black
church and cross-denominational cooperation. Enthusiastic preaching on personal
experience led to uneducated preachers, women preachers, and preachers of African
descent. The people who would become Unitarians didnt like this very much
Session 2: Unitarians and Slavery
Like all predominantly white denominations in the middle of the 19th century, the
Unitarians were divided on the issue of slavery. This session will focus on South Carolina
Senator John C. Calhoun, a Unitarian who believed that slavery was a positive good and
Millard Fillmore, president and Unitarian, who was more concerned with preserving the
Union than ending slavery.
Session 3: The American Unitarian Association mission to the Utes
In the 1870s, President Grant abolished the previous system of corrupt Indian agents
and gave the task of civilizing Native Americans to various Protestant denominations.
The Northern Ute Tribe in what is now Colorado and Utah was assigned to the American
Unitarian Association (forerunner of the UUA). The AUA sent a series of ministers to the
Utes to teach them to farm and convert them to Christianity. As is so often the case with
these types of stories, it did not go well. The mission ended in an event known as The
Meeker Massacre.

Session 4: The Pullman Strike Universalists and Workers Rights.

In 1894, the workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company, which made sleeping cars for
railroads, went on strike to demand that their rent in the company town in which they
lived be reduced when their wages were reduced. This strikeand accompanying
boycotts, shut down rail traffic throughout the country and resulted in violence. George
Pullman, the owner of the Pullman Palace Car Company, was a Universalist, with a
brother in ministry. He used some of his wealth to build Universalist Churches. How
should a persons theology, in Pullmans case a belief in universal salvation, influence his
actions in business?

Session 5: Egbert Ethelred Brown, an early African-American Unitarian minister

Egbert Ethelred Brown was the first person of African descent to enter the Unitarian
ministry in 1912. He founded two churches in his native Jamaica and a Unitarian church

in Harlem, New York. Throughout his ministry, he struggled with the racism of the AUA,
which wavered in its support for Browns ministry.

Session 6: The Empowerment Controversy

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Unitarian Universalist Association struggled with
how to reconcile itself to the black power movement. After heavy involvement in the
civil rights movement, the UUA was divided about how to respond to calls for black
power. This empowerment controversy led to a walkout at the UUAs General
Assembly, and scars and pain that linger with the denomination to this day.

Session 7: The Thomas Jefferson District Name Change

In 2011, the UUA district of congregations in North Carolina, South Carolina, and parts of
Tennessee, Georgia and Virginia changed its name from Thomas Jefferson District to
Southeast District, citing the fact that Jefferson owned slaves and was hostile to Native
Americans and their desire to be more welcoming to all people. In this final session of
the class we will discuss this name change and other ways to deal with troubling aspects
of our past.

Readings:
Readings from many sources will be available to participants in the class. You are encouraged to
read at least one article per week to be able to engage with the group. Do as much reading as
you find interesting, but dont let finishing the reading become a source of stress.