Unitarian Universalist Association. Commission on Religion and Race. Records, 1967-1969
Scope and Contents
This collection consists largely of the records of Homer Jack, who was director of the Department of Social Responsibility for the UUA in the late 1960s. Jack was the staff liaison between the Commission on Religion and Race and the Unitarian Universalist Black Caucus. This Commission sponsored the Emergency Conference on the Black Rebellion in New York City in October, 1967, which is where the UU Black Caucus emerged. Many of the records in this collection deal with the organization of the Emergency Conference, and people's responses to it after it ended. The collection includes drafts of statements about the Black Caucus, financial records, FULLBAC material, sermons, and papers dealing with the formation of the Black Affairs Council.
Note: See related collections bMS 1011, bms 1146, bMS 531, bMS 15027, and bMS 1144.
Dates
- Creation: 1967-1969
Extent
4 boxesBiographical / Historical
Immediately after the racial violence in Newark and Detroit in the summer of 1967, the Unitarian Universalist Commission on Religion and Race convened an emergency conference on "the Unitarian Universalist Response to the Black Rebellion." This conference was held in New York in October, 1967. The chief event of the 1967 conference was the formation of the Black Unitarian Universalist Caucus (BUUC), which was an attempt on the part of the black participants in the conference to set their own priorities and goals. This Caucus led to the formation of the Black Affairs Council (BAC), a committee which served as a coordinating agency for Unitarian Universalist efforts in the fields of race relations and black empowerment. FULLBAC (Full Recognition and Funding of the Black Affairs Council) was a white support group formed in 1968 which supported the full funding of the Black Affairs Council. Some Unitarian Universalists felt that the direction of the Black Affairs Council was too separatist, and a group called Black and White Action (BAWA) was formed in 1968 to provide a channel for the efforts of some Unitarian Universalists to achieve racial justice through more integrated means.
Through a mismanagement of funding by the UUA administration, the dispersal of funds promised to BAC was changed from a one million dollar payout over four years to one over five years, requiring reaffirmation every year. In 1970, BAC disaffiliated from the UUA and in the following two years, through the sale of BAC bonds and a grant from the Veatch program, they raised the funding they required. A year later, in 1973, BAC and BUUC split and two organizations claiming to be BAC emerged, leading to a lawsuit. As UUA membership declined in general during this period, so did black membership. BAC was officially disbanded in 1979.
Note: See film made about this controversy entitled "Wilderness Journey, The Struggle for Black Empowerment and Racial Justice within the Unitarian Universalist Association, 1967-1970," VHS created by Ron Cordes, 2003, in bMS 15027.
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- div01148
Repository Details
Part of the Harvard Divinity School Library, Harvard University Repository
Special Collections at Harvard Divinity School Library preserves and makes accessible primary source materials documenting the history of religion and theology, with particular historical emphasis on American liberal religious traditions. Though the historical strengths of the collections have been in the field of Christianity, other religious traditions are increasingly reflected, in step with Harvard Divinity School's evolving focus on global religious studies. Known as Andover-Harvard Theological Library since 1911, it was renamed the Harvard Divinity School Library in 2021.
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