Unitarian Universalist Black Empowerment Controversy. Records, 1965-1983.

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.