The third installment of our year-long “Common Read” series on racial justice is set to begin. The Selma Awakening by Mark Morrison-Reed is the book that is most personal to us as UUs for it poignantly articulates our own history with the civil rights movement – our triumphs and our shortcomings – and how it continues to shape us as a faith community. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the fellowship starting this Sunday – cost is $18.00 per copy. Discussion groups will be scheduled for later in April.
“In this book, Morrison-Reed places the iconic moment of Selma in the larger context of Unitarian Universalism. Within this larger frame, he both accentuates the importance of participation in Selma, highlights all that could have happened and delineates what did not. By showing how UU participation was NOT inevitable, he underscores the significance of that participation while placing it in a proper scale with the other commitments and non-commitments made in the arena of race relations. An essential read for anyone continuing the struggle to embrace the need for continued racial justice work today.”
~ Rev. Leslie Takahashi-Morris, co-author,
The Arc of the Universe Is Long: Unitarian Universalists, Anti-Racism, and the Journey from Calgary
“As I read Mark Morrison-Reed's The Selma Awakening I found myself shedding tears as I relived the events of 1965. Unitarian Universalists, civil rights activists, anyone alive in those turbulent times, and those yet to be born will find themselves caught up in these vivid recollections of those critical days. The book includes insights, anecdotes, and personal stories and it acknowledges for the first time key contributors to the success of the march from Selma to Montgomery. In particular, the section on women and the march elaborates on the under-reported story of women in the struggle for civil rights, and the broader ongoing struggle for women's liberation. Perhaps this book has been waiting for a scholar who identifies as both African American and Unitarian Universalist to do the diligent research required and bring the story of Selma to light.”
~ Rev. Orloff Miller, witness to the attack that killed Rev. James Reeb in Selma in 1965
“Selma changed the United States, and Selma changed Unitarian Universalism. Mark Morrison-Reed tells the story in exquisite detail, tracing the hundred-year history and the interdependent web of relationships that led hundreds of Unitarian Universalists to march for justice in Selma. In a work of scholarly depth and heartfelt passion, Morrison-Reed gives voice to both his admiration for the achievements of Unitarian Universalists and his anguish at our shortcomings, inviting all of us align our values in practice with our espoused values.”
~ Dan McKanan,
Ralph Waldo Emerson Unitarian Universalist Association Senior Lecturer in Divinity, Harvard Divinity School
About the Author
Retired from Unitarian Universalist parish ministry, Mark Morrison-Reed is an affiliated faculty member at Meadville Lombard Theological School and the coordinator of the Sankofa Archive there. He is the author or editor of several other books from Skinner House Books.
“In this book, Morrison-Reed places the iconic moment of Selma in the larger context of Unitarian Universalism. Within this larger frame, he both accentuates the importance of participation in Selma, highlights all that could have happened and delineates what did not. By showing how UU participation was NOT inevitable, he underscores the significance of that participation while placing it in a proper scale with the other commitments and non-commitments made in the arena of race relations. An essential read for anyone continuing the struggle to embrace the need for continued racial justice work today.”
~ Rev. Leslie Takahashi-Morris, co-author,
The Arc of the Universe Is Long: Unitarian Universalists, Anti-Racism, and the Journey from Calgary
“As I read Mark Morrison-Reed's The Selma Awakening I found myself shedding tears as I relived the events of 1965. Unitarian Universalists, civil rights activists, anyone alive in those turbulent times, and those yet to be born will find themselves caught up in these vivid recollections of those critical days. The book includes insights, anecdotes, and personal stories and it acknowledges for the first time key contributors to the success of the march from Selma to Montgomery. In particular, the section on women and the march elaborates on the under-reported story of women in the struggle for civil rights, and the broader ongoing struggle for women's liberation. Perhaps this book has been waiting for a scholar who identifies as both African American and Unitarian Universalist to do the diligent research required and bring the story of Selma to light.”
~ Rev. Orloff Miller, witness to the attack that killed Rev. James Reeb in Selma in 1965
“Selma changed the United States, and Selma changed Unitarian Universalism. Mark Morrison-Reed tells the story in exquisite detail, tracing the hundred-year history and the interdependent web of relationships that led hundreds of Unitarian Universalists to march for justice in Selma. In a work of scholarly depth and heartfelt passion, Morrison-Reed gives voice to both his admiration for the achievements of Unitarian Universalists and his anguish at our shortcomings, inviting all of us align our values in practice with our espoused values.”
~ Dan McKanan,
Ralph Waldo Emerson Unitarian Universalist Association Senior Lecturer in Divinity, Harvard Divinity School
About the Author
Retired from Unitarian Universalist parish ministry, Mark Morrison-Reed is an affiliated faculty member at Meadville Lombard Theological School and the coordinator of the Sankofa Archive there. He is the author or editor of several other books from Skinner House Books.
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