UU Icons by Robin Gray A. Powell Davies Bela Bartok Charles

UU Icons By Robin Gray

A. Powell Davies Bela Bartok Charles Dickens Daniel Chester French Dorothea Dix Edward E. Hale Egbert Ethelred Brown Emily Balch Joseph Tuckerman May Sarton Pete Seeger Phebe Hanaford Roger Baldwin Sophia Lyon Fahs Theodore Parker Viola Liuzzo Whitney Young Jr.

A. Powell Davies 1902-1957

“Born in England in 1902 and ordained as a Methodist, Davies moved to the United States in 1928 and soon became a Unitarian, crowning his career as minister of All Souls Church in Washington, D.C., from 1944 until his death in 1957.

Citing him as one of America's outstanding clergymen, Time magazine said that in Washington, "where many talk but few listen . . . Davies is a man who is heard," while the Washington Post described him as "militantly in the forefront of every assault upon intolerance and racial discrimination and injustice.”

His eloquence and courage were matched by keen insights into national and world affairs. In 1942 Davies wrote: "Not by design, but by necessity, the American people are moving towards world ascendancy." The prediction was no boast, but rather one of many calls to the conscience of the nation never to compromise its support of freedom. To Davies, a commitment to freedom was both a political and a religious principle.

In fact, they were one and the same. "We believe that freedom grows from free religion," he said, and "that only a free religion can be universal." This conviction led him to preach passionate sermons denouncing both Communist tyranny and Congressional persecution— this at the high- water period of Senator Joseph McCarthy's power. Equally, he denounced all manner of injustice and led the All Souls congregation in protesting segregation in restaurants, sponsoring the city's first integrated boys club, and collecting school supplies for the children of Hiroshima.”1

Davies and the congregation became involved with the children of Hiroshima after one of Davies controversial sermons made national news. It began when a photo of an atomic war cake was published in the Washington Post. The cake had been made for a party honoring the dissolution of the Army-Navy task force that conducted atomic tests on the Bikini Atoll. The tests not only led to the expulsion of an entire indigenous population, but cleared the way for dropping the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Davies centered his sermon five days later on the photograph and the gross insensitivity the cake displayed. He said, “The naval officers concerned should apologize to the armed service of which they are a part, and to the American people. No apology would be sufficient to efface what it may mean to the people of the world.”2

Dr. Howard Bell, an official in the provisional government in Japan wrote to Davies and suggested American children could collect school supplies for the children of Hiroshima. The children of the congregation did collect a half a ton of paper, pencils, crayons and more. They were sent to Japan and distributed to schools. In response the children of Hiroshima sent drawings of their lives and interests. Some surround the portrait of Davies.

1 https://www.uuworld.org/articles/a.-powell-davies-preacher-the-nation Warren R. Ross, 2002 2 http://conelrad.blogspot.come/2010/09/atomic-cake-controversy-or-1946. html

Bela Bartok 1881-1945

Béla Bartók, the greatest Hungarian composer, was one of the most significant musicians of the twentieth century. His music was invigorated by the themes, modes, and rhythmic patterns of the Hungarian and other folk music traditions he studied, which he synthesized with influences from his contemporaries into his own distinctive style.”1

A talented musician at an early age, when Bartok graduated from the Academy of Music in Budapest he became a concert pianist, performing in 620 concerts over his lifetime. He continued the lifelong pursuit of composition, and when in 1904 he was introduced to Hungarian folk music he began to weave that music into his compositions.

“While in Transylvania studying folk music, Bartok was introduced to the Unitarian Church. "By the time I had completed my 22nd year," he later wrote, "I was a new man—an atheist." In a letter written in 1905 Bartók claimed to be a follower of Nietzsche and expressed his skepticism about religious teachings: "It is odd that the Bible says, 'God created man,' whereas it is the other way round: man has created God. It is odd that the Bible says, 'The body is mortal, the soul is immortal,' whereas even here the contrary is true: the body (its matter) is eternal; the soul (the form of the body) is transitory.”

…In 1909 Bartók married Márta Ziegler. Their son, Béla Jr., was born in 1910. In the presence of his son Bartók declared his conversion to Unitarianism on July 25, 1916, and joined the Mission House Congregation of the Unitarian Church in Budapest in 1917. Formal church affiliation enhanced Bartók's prospects for additional employment and enabled his son to avoid otherwise mandatory Catholic religious instruction. Father and son attended the Unitarian Church regularly.

His two violin sonatas, 1921 and 1922, and the Dance Suite, written in 1923 for the fiftieth anniversary of the unification of the city of Budapest, helped to establish him as an important modern composer. In 1926 he composed a series of major works for piano, including the first of his three piano concertos. His third and fourth string quartets, from 1927 and 1928, in Bartók's most abstract and concentrated style, are among the works most often cited as masterpieces by music critics.

As the European political situation worsened, Bartók was increasingly tempted to flee Hungary. Having first sent his manuscripts out of the country, in 1940 Bartók sailed for America with his wife. Péter Bartók joined them in 1942 and later enlisted in the United States Navy. Béla Bartók, Jr. remained in Hungary. Although he became an American citizen in 1945, Bartók thought of his stay in the U.S. less as emigration than exile. One attraction of the U.S. for him was the opportunity to study a collection of Serbo-Croatian folk music at Columbia University in New York City.”2

1https://uudb.org/articles/belabartok.html 2ibid Charles Dickens 1812-1870

Charles Dickens’s famous novel about Ebenezer Scrooge changed the celebration of Christmas into what we think of as traditional today: an occasion to give to those less fortunate and to gather family and friends around laden dinner tables and Christmas trees filled with lights, decorations, and toys. Written shortly after Dickens joined a Unitarian church, A Christmas Carol became his most famous novel—and the one most representative of his Unitarian beliefs. Born and baptized into the Anglican Church, Dickens turned to Unitarianism in his thirties. His letters, speeches, and novels all show that he hated dogma: “The Church’s hand is at its own throat because of the doctrinal wranglings of the various parties: Here, more Popery, there, more Methodism—many forms of consignment to eternal damnation, these things cannot last,” he once wrote to a correspondent.

…In 1842 Dickens traveled to America and chronicled his disillusionment with the country’s institutions, especially slavery, in his American Notes. Yet Dickens praised his visit to Boston, where he met Ralph Waldo Emerson and William Ellery Channing, the leading figure of American Unitarianism.

On returning home, Dickens took a pew at the Little Portland Street chapel in London and became close friends with its minister, Edward Tagart. …Dickens wrote in a letter, “I have carried into effect an old idea of mine, and joined the Unitarians, who would do something for human improvement, if they could; and who practice Charity and Toleration.”

Dickens himself worked tirelessly for a wide range of charitable causes, raising funds for soup kitchens, emigration schemes, housing associations, prison reform, hospitals, adult education, and disabled artists. He also believed that through his fiction he could promote moral solutions to social ills and could change society for the better.

All Dickens’s novels reflect the central ideas of nineteenth-century Unitarianism: the belief that Jesus was a human being who exemplified a truly religious life; the rejection of materialism and the doctrine of necessity; the rejection of a God of stern judgment; a disdain of theological controversy; the rejection of dogma; an inclusive rather than an exclusive religion; and an emphasis on doing good works.

In A Christmas Carol, without once mentioning Jesus, Dickens shows it is possible to experience a conversion—not necessarily based on a specific religious experience—but a personal regeneration that leads one to help others. With Scrooge’s transformative change of heart, Dickens illustrates that his readers, too, can be converted from a harsh, complacent, selfish worldview to one of love, hope, and charity and, like Scrooge, can again become part of the human community. For Dickens, that was the true meaning of Christmas.

…To the end Dickens maintained his admiration and friendship with his Unitarian friends and colleagues, and they responded with equal enthusiasm. At the time of his death in 1870, almost idolatrous eulogies were heard all over New England. “Every Unitarian pulpit in

0F Boston,” one writer observed, “sent him to heaven immediately.”1

1adapted from: Timkko, Michael https://www.uuworld.org/articles/scrooges-conversion Daniel Chester French 1850-1931

At the age of 17, French entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1867. Science, however, was not his forte—he failed chemistry, algebra, and physics and was back at work on the family farm the following summer. French’s career began in an almost offhand way with the help of May Alcott (1840–1879), the sister of Louisa May Alcott and the model for Amy in Little Women. French recounted:

I had been whittling and carving things from wood and gypsum, and even from turnips, as many boys do, and as usual, the family thought the product remarkable. My father spoke about them to Miss Alcott, as the artist of the community, and she, with her ever ready enthusiasm, immediately offered to give me modeling clay and tools. I lost no time…in experimenting with the seductive material, although I didn t even know how to moisten it.

…In 1870, French undertook a measure of formal study. He spent one month in New York City at the studio of sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward (1830–1910). In the winters of 1870– 72, he studied anatomy in Boston with physician and sculptor William Rimmer.

In November 1873, the town of Concord, Massachusetts, commissioned the 23-year-old French to execute a statue commemorating the centennial of the Battle of Concord in the Revolutionary War. Unveiled in 1875, the bronze Minute Man was an immediate popular and critical success.

…French lived in Florence, Italy from 1874 to 1876, and studied and worked in the studio of the expatriate American sculptor Thomas Ball (1819–1911).

(He later returned to Europe, studying in Paris for a time.) “1888 was a watershed year for French. He returned from France and married his first cousin Mary Adams French (1859– 1939) in Washington, D.C. The young couple moved to New York City and the artist worked in a studio at the back of their brownstone townhouse. (There is some evidence that French joined a Unitarian Church in New York.)…French’s reputation as a sculptor continued to grow and French won a medal from the Societé National des Beaux-Arts, only the second in the history of the Societé to be awarded to an American. As preparations progressed for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the advisor for sculpture at the Exposition, asked French to execute six works, a significant contribution to what would be a groundbreaking World’s Fair in many ways.”

“French most likely became acquainted with architect Henry Bacon (1866–1924) in Chicago in 1893 where Bacon was working for the architectural firm McKim, Mead and White at the World’s Columbian Exposition that year. In 1914, as part of a large rehabilitation of the Mall in Washington, D.C., the Lincoln Memorial Commission selected French to create a statue of Abraham Lincoln for the Memorial that Henry Bacon had been commissioned to design. Dedicated in 1922, the monument would become their greatest joint effort—a project of eight years resulting in a significant national shrine with international meaning.” 1

French’s only child, Margaret French Cresson, was often in his studio both as a subject and an artist. She became a noted portrait sculptor.

1 adapted from https://www.chesterwood.org/daniel-chester-french Dorothea Lynde Dix

"If I am cold, they are cold; if I am weary, they are dis- tressed; if I am alone, they are abandoned.” - Dorothea Dix

1802-1887 “Dorothea Dix was a social reformer dedicated to changing conditions for people who could not help themselves—the mentally ill and the imprisoned. Not only a crusader, she was also a teacher, author, lobbyist, and superintendent of nurses during the Civil War. Through her tireless work of over two decades, Dix instituted changes in the treatment and care of the mentally ill and improved prison conditions. Today, the results of her efforts can still be seen throughout the United States, Canada, and many European countries.” - LaDonna Ghareeb

In an era when people with mental illness were thought to be less than human they were sometimes farmed out to individuals who were paid to “house” them. The wealthy might be able to afford some kind of hospital care for their relatives, but people in poverty were sent to the “poor house” or otherwise confined in prison. Some were chained in the poor house, unheated sheds or barns, often naked or barely fed. Dorothea Dix set as her task visiting every state, seeing with her own eyes the conditions people with mental illness were subjected to, and speaking before the Legislatures to reveal her findings.

It was also an era when women were treated as less than capable and sometimes Dorothea Dix had to let a man read her paper — the fruit of months of uncomfortable travel by horse drawn coach — to the all male Legislature that had the power to make changes.

Through persistence and uncompromising data collection, accompanied by impassioned revelations, Dorothea Dix convinced the Legislatures of many states to improve the treatment of people with mental illness. She was also directly responsible for the establishment of state supported institutions for the treatment of mental illness. By today’s standards the treatments still bore the hallmark of prejudicial thinking about the pain and suffering that accompanies many forms of mental illness. However, the residents of those facilities were clothed, fed, and much safer. Dorothea Lynde Dix, Unitarian, acted on her compassion.

You can read more in “Stranger and Traveler: The Story of Dorothea Dix, American Reformer,” 1975, by Dorothy Clarke Wilson. Edward Everett Hale 1822-1909

Edward Everett Hale (April 3, 1822-June 10, 1909) was one of the most prominent American Unitarian ministers of the last half of the nineteenth century. He was also a popular journalist, editor, and author. His short story, “The Man Without A Country,” is an American masterpiece. An active social and charitable reformer, he founded the Lend a Hand Society to help people 1 needing financial0F assistance.

“In college Hale found his place naturally in the literary set, won two Bowdoin prizes, graduated second in his class, and was the Class Poet. He did not go to the Divinity School but prepared for the ministry by teaching in the Boston Latin School and by reading and studying under the direction of his minister, Dr. Lothrop, and the Rev. John G. Palfrey.

Hale was licensed to preach by the Boston Association of Ministers and in 1846 was settled in the Church of the Unity in Worcester. There began his long and fruitful intimacy with Senator George F. Hoar. Ten years later he took charge of the South Congregational Church in Boston and remained the minister, and minister emeritus, for fifty-three years. Early in his ministry a new church was built, and his congregation was one of the largest in Boston.

…In 1852 Mr. Hale married Emily Perkins, a granddaughter of Lyman Beecher, and they had a large family of brilliant children. The hospitable house was open to all sorts and conditions of people, regardless of race or color.

…In spite of his incessant service in the ministry, Dr. Hale was constantly busy as an author. Pens and paper were his playthings. The little book A Man Without a Country, made his literary reputation and still continues the most popular and famous story that he ever wrote. So vivid is the imaginary tale that it was generally accepted as historic.”2

“…In the early 1880s Harriet E. Freeman became one of his volunteer secretaries…Hattie, as she was called, and Hale shared the same approach to life, and over their years together worked for common causes. As a result their relationship grew close, and finally loving and most intimate.

When they were away from each other, they stayed in touch by writing letters. The 3,000 of them which have survived, dating basically from 1882 until his death, were kept private by being written "partly" in code. So while the majority of each letter is in longhand, the more intimate passages were written in Towndrow's shorthand. They reveal both the love that existed between them, and how Harriet assisted Hale with writing sermons, essays, and books. So he, Harriet, and others, kept their passionate and intellectual union concealed for decades, and it was only at the start of the twenty- first century that it was revealed.”3

1 Seaburg, Alan https://uudb.org/articles/edwardeveretthale.html 2 adapted from https://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/edward-everett-hale/ 3 Seaburg, op cit Emily Greene Balch 1867- 1961

“Born in 1867 to a prosperous family of liberal Unitarian persuasion,…1She recalled late in life: “When I was about ten, a prosy old Unitarian divine was followed at the Unitarian Church by Charles Fletcher Dole. His warm faith in the force that makes for righteousness became the chief of all the influences that played upon my life. He asked us to enlist in the service of goodness whatever its cost. In accepting this pledge, I never abandoned in any degree my desire to live up to it.”

“In 1892, she founded Boston’s first settlement house, Denison House in Jamaica Plain, where she lived for several months as its head. During that time, she began what would become a lifelong friendship and working relationship with Jane Addams.”

“In 1900, Balch began her 18-year career at Wellesley (College) with a course in sociology. Her subsequent courses reflected an interdisciplinary approach to economic issues, combining politics, philosophy, sociology, and gender—courses reflecting her own practical experiences as a reformer.

Balch was an outspoken, active pacifist throughout the First World War. She joined the American delegation to the International Congress of Women at The Hague (1915). She met with President Woodrow Wilson and unsuccessfully attempted to gain his support for the ICW’s plan for continuous mediation as an alternative to battle.

“In 1918, Balch was dismissed from the Wellesley faculty—ostensibly for her long absences on behalf of the ICW, but in fact for her anti-war views…She began writing for The Nation and, in 1919, founded the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom with Jane Addams.”

“(Balch) organized the third International Congress in Vienna in 1921. In that year, she became a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers), in part because of its unwavering pacifist philosophy. She was a supporter of peace education at several of the WILPF’s summer schools. In 1926, under a special mission for WILPF, she traveled to Haiti to investigate conditions there. At the time Haiti was occupied by U.S. Marines. The committee’s report, written mostly by Balch, recommended the withdrawal of American troops and self- government of the Haitian people. She was the first to propose internationalization of Antarctica, which came to pass. It was said of her that “she had a talent for enlisting the cooperation of diverse individuals and groups in the cause of peace.”

Writing in 1942 to Rabbi Wise, president of World Jewish Congress, upon first learning of the mass murder of Jews in Europe, she wrote, “Those of us who are not Jews are oppressed by a sense of our own responsibility for we too are guilty. We are all answerable in part for the development of a state of things where the moral insanity of Hitler’s Germany was possible. And for a state of things where the civilized world can find no better way out than competition in reciprocal slaughter and destruction. We were not ready in time with any other method than this slow and cruel one.”

For her extraordinary contributions to world peace, she became the third woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946. Her close friend Jane Addams had been the second … In her Nobel acceptance speech, she said, “We are not asked to subscribe to any utopia or to believe in a perfect world. We are asked to equip ourselves with courage, hope, readiness for hard work and to cherish large and generous ideals.”

1 adapted from https://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/emily-greene-balch-2/ Egbert Ethelred Brown 1897 - 1956

Egbert Ethelred Brown and his wife, Ella Matilda (Wallace), landed in New York in February, 1920, in the midst of a snowstorm.1 As difficult as that may have been for people from Jamaica, it signaled the determination Rev. Ethelred Brown showed in pursuit of Unitarian ministry.

Ethelred Brown was still a youth, living in Montego Bay, when he began to seriously question Christian beliefs. An uncle owned a copy of Channing's sermon, Unitarian Christianity, and was happy to introduce him to a Unitarian with more books to ponder. Many years later, he deter- mined that he would like to be a Unitarian minister. His first approaches to Meadville Seminary received a guarded reception. He was told that though he could matriculate, no one could guaran- tee him a ministry in a white Unitarian church.

Despite other setbacks, Ethelred Brown was persistent, completing his degree and being ordained in 1912.2 He attempted to organize Unitarian churches first in Montego Bay, and later in King- ston. He was an eloquent preacher with enthusiasm for the Unitarian message, but, he had only a small success. That success was not sufficient to impress the AUA, and in 1916 they withdrew even the meager support they had offered Rev. Brown. After years of disappointment, he decided to move to Harlem to establish a Unitarian congregation there.

Harlem, 1920. The Great Migration of African-Americans from rural Southern states to the industrial North and West was well under way. It was the dawning of the Harlem Renaissance. Langston Hughes wrote his signature work, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, that year. Zora Neale Hurston would soon expand the literary scene in Harlem. Before the decade ended, a young woman began singing under the name Billie Dove, soon she would be known as Billie Holiday. Dozens of other artists, writers, and musicians created a cultural blossoming. However, as Rich- ard Wormser wrote: "But the Renaissance had little impact on breaking down the rigid barriers of Jim Crow that separated the races. While it may have contributed to a certain relaxation of racial attitudes among young whites, perhaps its greatest impact was to reinforce race pride among blacks."3

Reports vary on how successful the Harlem congregation was in terms of numbers. The core membership remained small, but, some say that 400 or more people attended Sunday services at times.4 Rev. Ethelred Brown described the philosophy of the church in The World Tomorrow: "The Harlem Unitarian Church is now an established institution, and is in truth what it claims to be, namely a temple and a forum: a temple in which we worship the true and good and beautiful, and receive inspiration to live a life of service; a forum whereat mind sharpens mind as we strive to plumb the depths, span the breadth and scale the heights of knowledge."5

The Harlem Unitarian Church was a home for discussion of political and social issues. Brown was able to establish a good working relationship with the Abyssinian Baptist Church,6 one of

1 1 The Origins of Black Humanism in America, Juan Floyd-Thomas, Palgrave MacMillan, 2008, p. 2 ibid, p. 3 The Harlem Renaissance, 1917-1936 in The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Richard Wormser, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_harlem.html 4 Origins of Black Humanism, p. 87 5 Origins of Black Humanism, p. 1 6 Origins, p.

2 the most politically active churches in the area. That undoubtedly extended HUC's effectiveness and reputation among progressives in Harlem.

Ethelred Brown was secretary of the Jamaica Progressive League for twenty years. He is also credited with being one of three leaders who worked for self-determination for Jamaica, speaking across Jamaica in 1938. His role is little recognized, and was even discredited during his lifetime, as he had chosen to become an American citizen.7 Jamaica did not receive independence until 1962.

In 1937, after years of uncertainty the AUA officially recognized the Harlem Unitarian Church. Although this greatly relieved Brown, and helped to assure more years of modest success for the Harlem Unitarian Church, the congregation disbanded in 1956.8 The same year that their minister, Ethelred Brown, died.

Symbols 1929-34 office manager of The World Tomorrow, p. 89 -- socialist and pacifist religionists and liberals, personal fulfillment

In his last days, the Unitarian Church in America produced and named in his honour a hymn called 'I'm on My Way'. Naming the tune 'Ethelred' was described as "... a tiny way to try to make amends for the honour never given Ethelred as he struggled to start a black mission church in Jamaica in 1908." Rev Ethelred Brown: He mixed religion with politics - In Focus - Jamaica Gleaner - Sunday | September 4, 2011 8/23/13 4:35 PM http://jamaica- gleaner.com/gleaner/20110904/focus/focus11.html Page 5 of 8

I’m on my way to the freedom land. I’m on my way to the freedom land. I’m on my way to the freedom land. I’m on my way, great God, I’m on my way. I asked my sister, come and go with me.. I asked my brother, come and go with me…. If they say no, I’ll go anyhow…. I’m on my way, and I won’t turn back…

7 Rev. Ethelred Brown He Mixed Religion with Politics, Ken Jones, The Gleaner, Sept 4, 2011 http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110904/focus/focus11.html 8 Origins of Black Humanism, p. 1 - Singing the Living Tradition (hymnal) #116

Joseph Tuckerman 1778-1840 “An indifferent student, Tuckerman, according to Channing, "had no serious view of life. Three years he passed as a holiday." He graduated in 1798 and, after some additional study, was called to a ministry in Rumney Marsh (now Chelsea), a quiet farming village where he served faithfully for twenty-five years.

In 1824 Harvard awarded him a D.D. degree in recognition of his long service in Chelsea. Few of his sermons from the period have survived. His pastorate was probably undistinguished except for his enthusiasm for pastoral work, especially with sailors who stayed in Chelsea between voyages. He carried his concern for sailors and their migrant families to his later social work ministry. His throat overtaxed by the delivery of two sermons every Sunday, Tuckerman resigned his pulpit in 1826. He had accepted an invitation from the Association for Mutual Improvement, an ad hoc group of Boston ministers led by Channing, to undertake a ministry to the poor.” 1

His nephew, Henry T. Tuckerman, wrote: “The project of a ‘ministry -at-large” to be sustained by the combined aid of the various Unitarian churches, was a precedent the importance of which can hardly be overrated. It was an enterprise precisely fitted to my uncle’s character, tastes, and ability; and this was made evident the moment he entered upon his functions. His whole nature was quickened. He interested the young and the wealthy in behalf of his mission; his services at the Free Chapel were fully attended; at the office of the Association a record was kept of all the poor known to be without employment in the city; with such facts of their history as were needed to their intelligent relief…He visited families who had no religious teachers and no regular source of livelihood, collected and reported facts, corresponded with the legislators at home and abroad and thus opened the way for a more thorough understanding of the condition of the indigent and the means of relieving them, the causes of pauperism, and the duty of Christian communities towards its victims…These labors initiated a new sphere of Protestant charity.”2

Boston’s poor and imprisoned people lived in terrible conditions. Tuckerman visited them, and tried to offer them friendly counsel. He needed the companion of a belief system worthy of the challenge. In his 1838 book, The Principles and Results of the Ministry At Large in Boston, he shared one foundation of his theology:

“to the Christian I would say, these are human beings. Are we God’s workmanship? So are they. Are we immortals? So are they. Are we objects of parental interest in the mind of God? So are they. Are they however sinners and great sinners before God? So are we…who of us shall say to them ‘stand off —- come not near —- we are holier than ye are?’”3

1 https://uudb.org/articles/josephtuckerman.html 2 www.harvardsquarelibrary.org Joseph Tuckerman 1778-1840 3 http://books.google.com/books?

id=n30fAAAAYAAJ&dg=principles+and+results+of+the+ministry+at+large&source=gbs_navlink s_s Joseph Tuckerman, The Principles and Results of the Ministry At Large in Boston, James Munroe and Co. Boston, 1838

Maria Mitchell 1818-1889 (Born on Nantucket Island) Maria Mitchell, the first American woman astronomer, was the first professor of Astronomy at Vassar College and the first director of Vassar's observatory. Honored internationally, she was one of the most celebrated American scientists of the 19th century.

…William Mitchell, an amateur astronomer, shared with his children what he considered to be the evidence of God in the natural world. Only Maria was interested enough to learn the mathematics of astronomy. At age 12 Maria counted the seconds for her father while they observed a lunar eclipse. At 14 she could adjust a ship's chronometer, a valuable skill in a whaling port.

In 1836 Mitchell was hired as librarian at the new Nantucket Atheneum. With the books of the Atheneum at her disposal Mitchell pursued her studies in languages, mathematics, and navigation. Meanwhile, she and her father made observations of the stars to assist in navigational timekeeping and surveyed the coast of Nantucket. Her discovery of comet Mitchell 1847VI on the night of October 1, 1847, led to international recognition, contacts with the community of American astronomers, and employment doing calculations for the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac.”1

Raised in the Quaker tradition, Mitchell she discovered that her mind was “not settled on religious subjects.”2 She was removed from membership, and attended the Unitarian Church, without becoming a member.

“Matthew Vassar, who had established Vassar Female College in 1861 as "the first U.S. college exclusively for women-based on the principle that women should receive the same education, with the same standards, as that offered in men's colleges," insisted that women, in a women's college, should be educated by women instructors…Mitchell was appointed Professor of Astronomy. She taught there from 1865 to 1888.

Mitchell was an advocate in the Woman's Rights movement. The notable women of that movement, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Susan B. Anthony, were her friends and compatriots in the struggle for equality in professions and reforms in education and health issues for women. Mitchell encouraged her students to think of themselves as professional women. She asked, "How many pulpits are open to women?" And, "Do you know of any case in which a boys' college has offered a Professorship to a woman? Until you do, it is absurd to say that the highest learning is within the reach of American women.”

Mitchell was the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1848; the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1850; and the American Philosophical Society, 1869. She was a founder and an early president of the American Association for the Advancement of Women, 1873. She was awarded medals by Denmark, 1848, and San Marino, 1859. In 1887 Columbia College (now University) bestowed upon her the honorary degree LL.D., Dr. of Science and Philosophy.”3

1 MacDonald, Joanne https://uudb.org/articles/mariamitchell.html 2 ibid 3 MacDonald, ibid

May Sarton 1912-1995

May Sarton, born in 1912, was a prolific writer and, some say, a difficult person. Self- involved and perhaps a little too attached to the persona she created in her journals, May drafted a body of poetry and novels which she felt never received the critical acclaim it deserved. The critics may have been (consciously or unconsciously) acting out of some prejudice because May Sarton was openly lesbian in a widely homophobic era.

In her career, May Sarton published 20 novels, 17 volumes of poetry, 12 journals, and 2 children's books.

May felt she couldn't write poetry without a muse -- usually a woman with whom she had fallen madly in love. Her poems were determinedly gender neutral, but May's loves were widely known. As was her long term relationship with Jane Matlock. May expected Jane to understand her loves and lovers, and Jane did...for a time. Eventually Jane precipitated a new living arrangement. They remained friends, celebrated holidays together, and Jane was a frequent visitor when May was in "solitude" in New Hampshire or Maine.

One can't read The Fur Person without feeling that one understands both human and feline nature more completely.

In 1965, she published Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing, portraying a lesbian in a positive light. This took some courage as the novel preceded the Stonewall Riots by four years. Stonewall marks the beginning of the gay and lesbian rights movement, but, is clearly predicated on attitudes apparent in Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing. Sarton's works have been examined in Women's Studies courses since Mrs. Stevens.

As We Are Now (1973) chronicles the problems aging people face in our society. The central character is placed in a nursing home, and the short novel follows her experiences concluding with an act of defiance.

May Sarton died in 1995. Having shared her loving self, her vulnerable self, and her cantankerous self, May Sarton is not dead to us, but, lives on in her human frailty, courage, and compassion.

Sources:

May Sarton: A Self-Portrait, Marita Simpson and Martha Wheelok, eds. W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1982

May Sarton: a biography, Margot Peters, Ballentine Publishing Random House, Inc. New

York, 1997 Happy 100th, May Sarton, Anne Garner: http://www.nypl.org/blog/2012/04/12/happy-100th-may-sarton

May Sarton, Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography: http://www.nypl.org/blog/2012/04/12/happy-100th-may-sarton

Symbols

The cat represents both The Fur Person and the cats May chose as companions throughout her life.

Daffodils represent May Sarton's love of flowers and her desire to commune with her inner thoughts while in the garden. In "A Country Incident" she wrote:

"Absorbed in planting bulbs, that work of hope, I was startled by a loud human voice, “Do go on working while I talk. Don’t stop!” And I was caught upon the difficult choice— To yield the last half hour of precious light, Or to stay on my knees, absurd and rude; I willed her to be gone with all my might, This kindly neighbor who destroyed a mood; I could not think of next spring any more, I had to re-assess the way I live. Long after I went in and closed the door, I pondered on the crude imperative..."

May Sarton: A Meditation

"A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself."

May Sarton met many losses in her life. The loss of every emerging love as it waxed and waned and passed away. The loss of Jane's unquestioning companionship. The loss of the acclaim she thought she deserved. The loss of youth. The loss of time to continue writing.

She had triumphs, too. The inspiration of her muses. A nearly lifelong connection with Jane Matlock. The cats that accompanied her through all seasons. The publication of her dreams as novels and her inner thoughts in journals and poetry.

Our lives are composed of losses and triumphs. Contemplate the flowers May Sarton loved. Daffodil bulbs have great potential. Some years naturalizing bulbs emerge in

2 spring, spreading across ever growing expanses with yellow showers of hope. In other years, squirrels make off with a crop of bulbs, or winter extreme cold kills them outright. These flowers represent the triumphs and losses of our own lives.

Give yourself over to considering the cat who represents both The Fur Person and the real cat that might have been May Sarton's only companion in solitude. This cat can be a symbol of the triumph of imagination, empathy, and vulnerability.

As you gaze on May Sarton's face and the flaming chalice of Unitarian Universalism, call to your mind five losses and five triumphs in your own life. Renew your commitment to embrace triumphs yet to come. Let May's portrait remind you of lessons you may have learned from reading any of her poetry, novels, or journals. Take from this interaction an ability to understand your own humanity, richly diverse, always deserving celebration.

3 Pete Seeger 1919-2014 “Pete Seeger …was a voice for a justice and equity through-out the 20th century. He was also affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Community Church on 35th Street, in New York, first joining it for rehearsal space (because his mother was Unitarian), and is acknowledged has having been a long-time UU.

In an interview on Beliefnet, Seeger said, "I feel most spiritual when I’m out in the woods. I feel part of nature. Or looking up at the stars. [I used to say] I was an atheist. Now I say, it’s all according to your definition of God. According to my definition of God, I’m not an atheist. Because I think God is everything. Whenever I open my eyes I’m looking at God. Whenever I’m listening to something I’m listening to God.".

Seeger sang about progressive issues and animated protest movements with his music continuously from the 1940's, and he continued to record, perform and speak out against on injustice until the end of his life. His music is so closely associated with values of fairness and equality that many people, focusing on the message of his music, don't realize that songs like "Turn, Turn, Turn," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy," or "If I Had a Hammer," were written by anyone in particular. Pete Seeger was the folksinger most responsible for popularizing the spiritual "We Shall Overcome", which became the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement, changing the lyric "we will overcome" to "we shall overcome.”If there is such a thing as a national canon of folk protest music, Peter Seeger's might be it.

Pete Seeger believed his music could change hearts and minds, and his music was in service of his activism. He was an active steward of the environment, who worked for civil and labor rights, racial equality, international understanding, and anti-militarism, militated against the death penalty…After taking up sailing in the 1960s, Seeger learned how polluted the Hudson River had become. “The world was being turned into a poisonous garbage dump. By the time 1 the meek inherited it,” he said, 0F “it might not be worth inheriting.”

“If there was ever a progressive cause Pete Seeger didn’t sing about, the record doesn’t show it. As early as 1947, long before it became well known, he started singing “We Shall Overcome.” During the 1960s, he went South to oppose Jim Crow, and during the Vietnam War, he performed at college protests all over the country. “If you love your Uncle Sam, bring ’em home,” he sang. “Support our boys in Vietnam, bring ’em home, bring ’em home.” When the Smothers Brothers invited him to appear on their top-ranked television show, he sang his antiwar “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy”— but CBS higher-ups cut it out of the show. And, of course, he also wrote “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” which became an anthem of peace movements worldwide.

Typically, he plunged into activism to tackle this latest concern. In 1968, he led a movement to build a replica of an old-fashioned Hudson River sloop. It would be huge, he proclaimed at fundraising concerts up and down the Hudson Valley—“75 feet long, 25 feet wide, mast 105 feet, carrying one of the largest mainsails in the world.” If the Hudson was to be saved, he 2 said, “people must learn to love it again, to come down to the1F water’s edge and see it close.”

1Resnikoff, Ted https://www.uua.org/blueboat/voices/pete-seeger-activism-spiritual-search 2 Ross, Warren https://www.uuworld.org/articles/pete-seeger-saga

Phebe Ann Coffin Hanaford

“I ask not earthly pomp and power, Earth s riches or its joy; For well I know Time s onward march Such glory will destroy: But, O blest Savior! grace impart, — Oh light the Day-Star in my heart”! - Phebe Hanaford

1829-1921 Phebe Hanaford was born in 1829 and wed to Joseph Hanaford, a Baptist, in 1849, She bore two children: Howard and Florence.

She was abhorred the institution of slavery, and in 1852 published an anti-slavery novel, "Lucretia, the Quakeress or Principle Triumphant." Though this is the same year that Uncle Tom's Cabin was published, Lucretia did not share the widespread popularity that Harriet Beecher Stowe's characters enjoyed. However, within the pages of the novel Lucretia successfully convinced her suitor, a gentleman from the South, to free all the workers he held in slavery.

Phebe followed the progress of the Civil War and the news of Abraham Lincoln closely. When Lincoln was assassinated, she quickly published the first volume recounting his life story and his speeches. The book sold well, and gave her financial independence.

The need to find herself fulfilled in a ministry of the gospel led her to explore Universalist leanings, and eventually to preaching and ordination. In 1868 she was the first woman ordained in New England.

In 1870 when she accepted the pulpit at the Universalist church in New Haven, Connecticut she only brought her companion, Ellen Miles, and her daughter Florence with her. Joseph and Phebe never shared the same home again. Letters between Phebe and Ellen indicate that their relationship was extremely close and loving. They would be partners for forty years.

Phebe experienced some real success as the minister in New Haven; and wrote about it in a pamphlet recounting the history of that church. Referring to herself in the third person, she said:

“It is now three years and five months since the present pastor entered upon her labors, and it does not become her to say aught which might savor of boasting, but in a spirit of devout and humble gratitude, she is able to declare that according to the statistics of both Church and Society, there has been unexampled prosperity during this pastorate. The popular prejudice against attending a Universalist church has been so far overcome, that

1 this large edifice has often been crowded to overflowing. Women are no longer ashamed to be seen at our meetings.”

Ellen had assumed some duties at the church in New Haven, but, Ellen’s firm attitudes caused some trouble in the women’s groups. Phebe’s ministry was called into question by some, and after a supportive, but not unanimous, vote to renew her call she decided to leave and accepted a call to the Universalist Church of the Good Shepherd in Jersey City, New Jersey. She moved, after some years, to the second Universalist society in Jersey City, and for her final years in the parish accepted a call to the Second Universalist Church of New Haven.

She died in 1921, at the age of ninety-two. Sources:

A Paper Trail: Piecing Together the Life of Phebe Hanaford, Lisa M. Tetrault Nantucket Historical Society, http://www.nha.org/history/hn/HNhanaford.htm

A Mighty Social Force: Phebe Ann Coffin Hanaford 1829-1921, Loretta Cody with Rev. Sarah Barber-Braun, see www.booksurge.com, 2009

Historical Sketch of the First Universalist Church and Society, New Haven, Conn. Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, Hoggson and Robinson, 1873 (Available through Google Books)

Women of the Century, Phebe A. Hanaford, B.B. Russell, Boston, 1877 (Available through Google Books)

From Shore to Shore: and other poems, Phebe A. Hanaford, B.B. Russell, Boston, 1871 (Available through Google Books. The complete text of The Day-Star in My Heart is on p. 36, Google Books download.)

Lucretia the Quakeress or Principle Triumphant, Phebe A. Hanaford (1853) (Available online at http://www.letrs.indiana.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=wright2;idno=wright2- 1087)

Meditation: Phebe Hanaford

Phebe Hanaford, along with a very few other women, entered the ministry at a time when prejudice against women in the pulpit was widespread. In “The Life of Samuel Johnson” (1791) John Boswell records this snippet of conversation: I told him I had been that morning at a meeting of the people called Quakers, where I had heard a woman preach. Johnson: "Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."

2 Phebe Hanaford was known to her congregations to have been a capable and convincing preacher. Yet, she left her pulpit in New Haven convinced that her gender was the root of her problems with some members of the congregation.

Such are the mechanics of prejudice. It sets people up to dislike what they see and to label someone inferior -- even in the face of evidence to the contrary. It undermines the confidence of those subject to the prejudgement. It can cause both parties to abandon trust in the other.

As you consider Phebe Hanaford, the cross she wears, and the day-star shining over her shoulder allow yourself to remember ways in which prejudice has touched your life. Recall prejudgements you may have made, and times when you may have been subject to the prejudice of others. Allow yourself to consider how the day-star of understanding and love might rise in every life, replacing prejudice.

Symbols Star in Stained Glass The Stained Glass Windows in the Cobblestone Church Building, Unitarian Universalist Church of Cortland, Cortland, N.Y. http://uucortland.uuism.org/churchwindows.html

The Day Star/ The Morning Star

3 In the Hebrew Bible, Isaiah taunts a Babylonian king by saying: "How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit." (Isaiah 14:12)

Also known as the day star, the star referenced by Isaiah is the planet Venus, which can often be seen in the day and as the sun sets. It is often the first and brightest "star" in the sky, clearly visible to any who take time to look up. The Babylonian king, it seems, thought himself equal to or greater than this shining orb.

The image of the morning star/day star, is carried into the New Testament. Writing about 90 C.E., the author known to us as John of Patmos gives these words to Jesus: "Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star." (Revelation 22:15-16)

In 2 Peter, the last book of the New Testament to be written (120-150 C.E.), the author who identifies himself as Peter writes: "And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation." (2 Peter 1:18-19)

Phebe Hanaford's poem, The Day-Star in My Heart, winds around these images and is a symbol of both her Universalist faith and a belief that faith could change lives.

The Day-Star In My Heart

I ask not earthly pomp and power, Earth’s riches or its joy; For well I know Time’s onward march Such glory will destroy: But, O blest Savior! grace impart, -- Oh light “the Day-Star in my heart”! ... Then forth upon the wings of love To other hearts I’d speed, And scatter there, with childlike faith, The precious gospel-seed, Till penitential tears shall start, And beams the Day-Star in each heart.

------Background Material

Symbols: Star, Gold Cross, ? stained glass windowPhebe Ann Hanaford Day-Star

4 the morning star, usually planet Venus, see A dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts. 2 Peter 1:19

J. Timothy Unruh, copright 1994, Venus: The Day Star, http://www.geocentricity.com/ba1/no075/venus.html

“Venus is mentioned several times in the New Testament as either the morning star or the day star in reference to its typological significance as a representation of Christ. In the Bible every heavenly object apart from the Sun and the Moon is called a star. Only one of these is bright enough to be seen in the daytime, and hence is sometimes called the day star, thus is the planet Venus. “We have also a more sure word of prophesy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” -II Peter 1:19. Preceding the daylight is the daystar, Jesus Christ. As surely as the day follows the rising of the morning star, we know that God will come to rule on earth, bringing peace and light, because Jesus has arisen in the hearts of His people. The fullness of this solidly Biblical symbolism is not exhausted yet, for the majesty of the heavens simply typify the pre-eminent glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, the “bright and Morning Star” (Revelation 22:16), whose second coming shall usher in the age of righteousness and peace, for He is the “Prince of peace.” Without Christ the world cannot have peace, for only righteousness can bring peace. As the morning star rises, as if from the darkness of death unto the heavens above, “God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by His power,” “...and make us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” — I Corinthians 6:14; Ephesians. 2:6.”

Writing of her pastorate in “Historical Sketch of the First Universalist Church and Society in New Haven, Connecticut” -

TO ELLEN E MILES in From Shore to Shore and other poems FRIEND of my later years whose tender love Has filled my home with blossoms sweet though late Whose noble heart my spirit must approve As Duty's path thou treadst with willing feet Thy welcome service at Love's bidding mine As these my rhythmic waifs are gathered now Calls for a grateful tribute and I twine This simple wreath dear Nellie for thy brow Soul sister may the waiting years for thee Pour out a largess of such holy joy

5 That earth shall seem the porch of heaven to be And songs of praise thy tuneful lips employ Then while eternal years shall onward roll

6 Still may we share Love's summer of the soul The Day-Star In My Heart

... Then forth upon the wings of love To other hearts I’d speed, And scatter there, with childlike faith, The precious gospel-seed, Till penitential tears shall start, And beams the Day-Star in each heart.

7 Roger Nash Baldwin

“I would say that social work began in my mind in the Unitarian Church when I was ten or twelve years old, and I started to do things that I thought would help other people.” - Roger Nash Baldwin

1884-1981

Roger Nash Baldwin, born in 1884, grew up in a privileged family living in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. He later described his faith tradition as “agnostic Unitarian.” As a youth he attended his grandparents Unitarian church where Edward Everett Hale was minister. Here he was introduced to the Lend A Hand Club, conceived by Hale in a story. The mission of the club in the story is: “Look up and not down. Look forward and not back. Look out and not in. Lend a hand.”1

After an “inevitable” sojourn at Harvard for education, Roger Baldwin decided to devote his career to social services. He spent a decade in St. Louis and became chief probation officer of the Juvenile Court. He was an active proponent of many probation reforms, co- authoring Juvenile Courts and Probation (1914).

When he heard Emma Goldman2 speak he became convinced that modest tweaks to the system weren’t enough. He found himself in alignment with anarchist and socialist philosophies. And, as World War I approached, he agreed with those that found war served the interest of the ruling class. Roger Baldwin was a pacifist, and his commitment to that stance would be tested.

Asked to join the American Union Against Militarism (AUAM), he agreed to serve as secretary. As the war began the AUAM became active protecting the rights of conscientious objectors. There were reports that conscientious objectors were treated to more than scorn, with some being detained and others beaten for their declarations. Baldwin took the forefront in the subset of the AUAM titled the Civil Liberties Bureau, defending objectors. In 1917, the Civil Liberties Bureau split off from AUAM, to protect the parent organization, and Baldwin took the lead of the new National Civil Liberties Bureau (NCLB).

The activities of the NCLB were suspect in government circles. They were accused of distributing pamphlets that eroded faith in the war effort and conscription. As the months passed, dissent was becoming less and less popular, and more subject to laws of restraint. The Sedition Act in May of 1918 outlawed ‘false statements ’that hindered war bond

1 Edward Everett Hale: A Life of Loving Service http://www.lend-a-hand-society.org/about- edward- everett-hale/ 2 see box at the end of this section for more information on Emma Goldman’s philosophy

1 sales, or recruitment; as well as any ‘disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language ’in regard to the government, constitution, armed forces, flag, or military uniforms; and, also banned language that would bring scorn or contempt on those entities.3 In short, the Sedition Act took a broad swath against many forms of dissent. Baldwin and others saw this as serious erosion of the civil liberties citizens of the United States enjoyed.

When Roger Baldwin’s own draft notice arrived, he responded in writing stating: “I am opposed to the use of force to accomplish any end, however good. I am therefore opposed to participation in this or any other war. My opposition is not only to direct military service, but, to any service whatsoever designed to help prosecute the war.”4

Baldwin was sentenced to one year in jail, and on the day the war ended, he was transferred to the Essex County Jail in New Jersey to begin his sentence. While there, Baldwin organized the Prisoners ’Welfare League. A committee raised money to hire a lawyer for prisoners with good arguments, civic minded women convinced the library to send books to the jail, and welfare agencies helped poor prisoners families.5

In 1920, the NCLB became the American Civil Liberties Union, with Roger Baldwin at the helm. Those who worked with him described an energetic, almost driven, man who maintained a sure control of the ACLU. He maintained an inclusive vision for the organization, leading it not only in the defense of conscientious objectors, but, also defending the civil liberties of communists, Nazis, the Silver Shirts, the Ku Klux Klan, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Catholic, Jews, Anti-Facists, Quakers...and, Henry Ford.6

Baldwin was not always accorded the liberties he sought for others. The offices of the NCLB were raided by the FBI. In 1919 Military Intelligence listed him among sixty-two men and women who were “active in movements which did not help the United States when the country was fighting the Central Powers.”7 J. Edgar Hoover later placed him on a list of those “believed to be the most dangerous and who in all probability should be interned in the event of War.”8

On January 1, 1950 Roger Nash Baldwin retired from the Director’s position. He took on the work of international relations for the ACLU. He continued to be active in, and sometimes meddle in, ACLU affairs for many years.

In 1981, Roger Baldwin died. He had already planned his service to be held at the Community Church, and planned the entire order of service including speakers and their time allotments. The final words of the service Baldwin had written himself: “If I have stood for anything distinctive it

3 Roger Nash Baldwin and the American Civil Liberties Union, Robert C. Cottrell, Columbia University Press, New York, 2000 p. 71 4 ibid, p. 81 5 op cit, p. 97

2 6 op cit, p. 260 7 A Mead Project page originally published as: New York Times. "Lists Americans As Pacifists." New York Times 25 January 1919: 1, 4. 8 Roger Nash Baldwin and the American Civil Liberties Union, Robert C. Cottrell, Columbia University Press, New York, 2000 p.275

3 is for my consistency in sticking to the principles I so profoundly believe in -- non-violence, freedom, equality, law and justice.”

Meditation

1. Freedom, liberty, equality...those are all things we want for our own lives, but, sometimes we don’t know how to expand the base of liberty to include those with whom we disagree. Give yourself over to imagining a conversation with Roger Nash Baldwin in which you explain the freedoms you seek, and the liberties you defend.

2. “I would say that social work began in my mind in the Unitarian Church when I was ten or twelve years old, and I started to do things that I thought would help other people.”

With these words Roger Nash Baldwin reminds us how important youth work can be. Children (and adults) learn by doing. Roger Baldwin learned to do things to help others, and that experience stayed with him throughout his life. Consider the child behind this man’s face, and the children and youth with whom you have connections. Meditate on the ways you have and you can bring them experiences that will help them grow in service as they grow in maturity.

Sources Roger Nash Baldwin and the American Civil Liberties Union, Robert C. Cottrell, Columbia University Press, New York, 2000

A Mead Project page originally published as: New York Times. "Lists Americans As Pacifists." New York Times 25 January 1919: 1, 4.

Roger Nash Baldwin Quotes, Brainy Quote, http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/roger_nash_baldwin.html

4 Sophia Lyon Fahs 1876-1978 “As a teacher, writer, editor, and advocate, Sophia Lyon Fahs (1876- 1978) helped to revolutionize American children's religious education—and played a major role in what is often called the "Unitarian renaissance" of the 1940s.

As a college freshman in 1893, Sophia taught her first Sunday school class. The curriculum for kindergartners in her Presbyterian church was the Ten Commandments. In those days, Sunday schools—even in Unitarian churches—focused exclusively on the Bible; the goal was conveying doctrine to young minds. Frustrated, she began looking for better ways to help children engage the material, but as she learned more about children's development—and about modern biblical scholarship—her theology changed radically, too.

She embraced progressive educational principles while completing a degree at Columbia University's Teachers College in 1904, where she taught in an experimental Sunday school. In 1923, when her children were grown, she enrolled at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Already a prominent religious educator and the author of two children's books about missionaries, she was one of the first two women to join Union's faculty in 1927.

In the late 1920s, as the debate about Fundamentalism raged in Protestant circles, Fahs sided with the Liberals. "To build the beginnings of faith in God on a conception of the universe that our generation no longer regards as true," she later wrote, "is to prepare the way for a loss of respect for the Bible; and what is worse, to court a cynical atheism when the child is old enough to learn for himself." A modern faith, she argued, must take science and modern attitudes seriously; faith, she believed, is rooted ultimately in a person's own experiences. Educators in many denominations agreed, but few took her conclusions as far as she did.

…From 1937, when she was 61, until her retirement in 1951, Fahs helped lead a Unitarian religious education revival. "The New Beacon Series," which she edited and for which she wrote or co-authored more than a dozen books, addressed children directly using vivid stories from around the world. Drawing on anthropological and psychological research, the children's books were dedicated to one goal: "We wish children to come to know God directly through original approaches of their own to the universe." The series' child- centered approach appealed to many young "baby boom" parents, and the curriculum's popularity in the fellowships that sprang up across the continent was one leading factor in Unitarianism's post- war resurgence.”

…She was ordained in 1959—aged 83—by what is now the Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda, Maryland, in recognition for a lifetime contribution to the liberal religious movement.1

Succinctly put, Fahs wrote:

1 (Adapted from Sophia Lyon Fahs, revolutionary educator CHRISTOPHER L. WALTON (https://www.uuworld.org/issues/march-april2003.shtml)

“We cannot give our children a growing and creative religious life. A fine religion is a personal achievement.”

“Wendell and Jimmie in our sixth-grade class could have helped me lead a service of worship, had I been sensitive enough at the time to see the possibilities. For one day in class Wendell had said, "Some one says that if you boiled all the chemicals in your body down and sold them, they'd be worth only seven cents. It's the way you're put together that's the hard part." And Jimmie had added: "just chemicals can't have children.”"

She concludes:

“We might have filled a table with containers holding samples of the different chemical elements in one human body. What dynamic questions might have been awakened! How reverently we would have felt as together we stood before the Great Mystery of Life!”

Theodore Parker 1810 -1860

“Theodore Parker (August 24, 1810-May 10, 1860) was a preacher, lecturer, and writer, a public intellectual, and a religious and social reformer. He played a major role in moving Unitarianism away from being a Bible-based faith, and he established a precedent for clerical activism that has inspired generations of liberal religious leaders.”1

“His religious sensibility developed partly in response to domestic tragedy. By age 27 he had lost most of his family--his parents and seven of nine siblings--mostly to tuberculosis; his mother had died of the disease when he was 12. In the face of these disasters, Parker developed a strong faith in the immortality of the soul and in a God who would allow no lasting harm to come to any of His children. His firm belief in the benevolence of God led him to reject Calvinist theology as cruel and unreasonable. Ambition also helped keep Parker a Unitarian. He dreamed of joining the Boston social elite, which was predominantly Unitarian.”2

“Parker completed his Divinity School courses in the spring of 1836. In April 1837, he married Lydia Cabot. That June, Parker was ordained minister of the West Roxbury Unitarian church, which had only 60 adult members. Parker took this small settlement at the urging of his wife's family, who lived nearby.”3

Over the next few years, Parker became convinced of a truth he shared in an ordination sermon. He denied the factuality of Biblical miracles. This led to a public outcry, and he was eventually barred from preaching in many Unitarian churches. Parker and other Transcendentalist thinkers continued to spar with other clergy. In 1845, Parker’s supporters organized the 28th Congregational Society. Attendance at his sermons grew to 1,000 then to 2,000, a crowd that could only be accommodated by the Boston Music Hall.

Parker advocated for and supported many programs of social reform. “He supported efforts to alleviate urban poverty, and urged that the criminal justice system reform criminals, not punish them. He advocated for the end of the "degradation of women" and endorsed women's suffrage.”4

“Parker denounced the Mexican War (1846-1848) as an attempt to expand slavery and led Boston opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The act established a federal bureaucracy to catch slaves who had escaped to the free states. Most Boston Unitarian ministers either refused to oppose the legislation, or publicly supported it as a constitutional obligation and as a politically necessary concession to the South that would "save the Union" and "settle" the slavery issue. Some argued that catching fugitive slaves was sanctioned by Scripture. Parker pronounced the act a violation of Christian deals and a threat to free institutions. In his Sermon of Conscience (1850), he openly called for it to be defied.”5

1Unitarian Universalist Historical Society, Dean Grodzins 2 ibid 3 ibid 4 ibid 5 ibid

Viola Liuzzo 1925-1965

Impulsive, sometimes rash, but always a champion for the needs of others, Viola Gregg Liuzzo was born the daughter of a coal miner. She learned early in life that cooperative action and unions have a role in protecting rights. One day her father discovered sparks as he worked in the mine. Telling his supervisor only got him sent back to work with the implication that he was shirking. When the inevitable explosion happened Gregg lost a hand. His wife had to become the sole wage earner for the family.

The stories told about Viola reinforce the image of her impulsiveness. As a youth, she stole money from a till, not for herself, but for a boy whose family had no money for food. She hastily married at sixteen, and the marriage was just as hastily annulled. Later, as a working woman, she learned of a co-worker who had been released without severance pay. She asked that her check be given to the co-worker, and in the process of her protests lost her own job.

Viola married a second time, this marriage lasted long enough to produce children; but, ended in divorce because Viola and her husband didn't have the same ambitions. A third marriage to Jim Liuzzo brought her into close contact with the Teamsters Union, as Jim was worked for the union. (Jim might have been a strong-arm for the Teamsters, and once provided security for Jimmy Hoffa.)

Viola left the Catholic Church after a priest told her a child she miscarried would “never see the face of God.”1 She became a Unitarian, joining others who believe in the power of eternal love, and can conceive of God as the source of love poured out on all who suffer.

The events of Bloody Sunday in March, 1965 stirred Viola to action. When civil rights and voting rights marchers attempted to cross the Edmund Pettus bridge they were met by police under order to stop the march by any means. Journalists chronicled the police as they beat unresisting marchers. Photos of the violence flashed around the country, landing in Chicago where Viola was attending Wayne State University. Viola called home from the college, to tell Jim and her five children that she was going to Alabama to join the march. Jim couldn't talk her into coming home first to discuss it.

When Viola arrived in Montgomery, the beginning point of the multi-day march, she was given a position at the registration desk greeting others as they arrived. In the end, over 3,000 marchers, protected by court order and the National Guard would successfully cross the Edmund Pettus bridge bringing peaceful protest to Selma.

During the days of the march, Viola had also supplied transportation and lent help to Jimmy Moton - the transportation coordinator who didn't drive. After the march and the speeches were over, people needed to be transported to Montgomery to catch trains and

1 The Voting Rights Martyr Who Divided America, John Blake, CNN Politics, February 28, 2013 http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/28/politics/civil-rights-viola-liuzzo 1 planes home. Viola assisted with the transfers and when Jimmy Moton needed a ride himself she offered to drive him.

That evening four members of the Ku Klux Klan were riding around looking for isolated blacks or blacks and whites together to terrorize. When they saw a black man and a white woman alone in a car, they decided to attack them, possibly to pull the car over and give the occupants a severe beating. They also had guns with them. They followed the car for a while, and when it seemed no one would see them, they pulled up next to Viola's car and vowing to go “all the way” two of the Klansman shot into the car numerous times. A bullet aimed at Viola's head killed her. The car ran off the road and Jimmy Moton, who was injured but not shot, eventually found a ride to safety with a truckload of civil rights activists.

One of the four Klansmen in the car that night was an FBI informant. He identified the other three men in the car, and within twenty-four hours they were in custody. Whether they would ever be convicted of a crime was in doubt. White juries in Alabama didn't convict whites who killed blacks, and that policy would easily extend to the white allies of black protestors.

President Lyndon Baines Johnson immediately began looking for a way to inhibit Klan activities, and in a speech to the nation, said: “Mrs. Liuzzo went to Alabama to serve the struggle for justice. she was murdered by the enemies of justice who, for decades, have used the rope and the gun, the tar and feathers, to terrorize their neighbors. They struck by night, as they generally do. For their purposes cannot stand the light of day.”2

Viola Liuzzo's untimely death on a lonely Alabama road inspired people around the country to take a renewed interest in bringing civil rights and voting rights to every state in the Union. We live today in the knowledge that one white woman’s death inspired actions that thousands of Black lynchings and murders failed to inspire. The nation gained a martyr, history left us with more inequality to address.

Sources:

The Informant: The FBI, The Ku Klux Klan and the Murder of Viola Liuzzo, Gary May, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2005

The Voting Rights Martyr Who Divided America, John Blake, CNN Politics, February 28, 2013 http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/28/politics/civil-rights-viola-liuzzo

Viola Liuzzo, Joanne Giannino, Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography, http://www25- temp.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/violaliuzzo.html

Civil Rights Martyr Viola Liuzzo, Teamsters, http://teamster.org/content/civil-rights-martyr- viola-liuzzo-0

2 The Informant: The FBI, The Ku Klux Klan and the Murder of Viola Liuzzo, Gary May, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2005 -- ebook location 2367 2

Meditation

Viola Liuzzo was impulsive, and largely unafraid of the consequences of her actions. She died driving a black man down a lonely road on the evening when 25,000 people had demanded to see Governor Wallace, and he had refused, declaring the state offices closed. The victory of crossing the Pettus Bridge with thousands was tempered by the actions of an entrenched opposition.

Viola Liuzzo was singing as she drove down the road Jimmy Moton testified at the murder trial. She was singing the refrain from “We Shall Overcome” repeatedly. She died singing, “We Shall Overcome.” Many of the outrages of the twentieth century Jim Crow South have been overcome. Today, Michelle Alexander has demonstrated that we live in the era of a New Jim Crow when young men are frisked for “walking while black.” Felony charges, handed out liberally, strip people of voting rights, the right to work, and the right to housing and other benefits. Giant prisons warehouse people caught up in the machinations of The War on Drugs.3

There is still much to overcome. Like Viola Liuzzo we each need to find the courage to defy unjust systems. We need to live singing, “We shall overcome…” We need to love past the fears and hatred that divide our nation. We need to take courageous action in concert with others.

Allow yourself to consider your own bravery, foolhardiness, and fears. Seek in the portrait of Viola Liuzzo impetus to courage, inspiration for concerted action, enough caution to protect yourself, the love that binds you to others in a cause, and the understanding that helps you to cross the divide growing out of fear and hatred.

3 The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander, The New Press, 2010 3 Whitney M. Young Jr. 1921-1971

“Whitney Moore Young, Jr. was born July 31, 1921 in Lincoln Ridge, Kentucky on the campus of Lincoln Institute where his father was President…After World War II ended Young attended the University of Minnesota where he earned a Master’s Degree in Social Work. He was hired to lecture at the university after his graduation. Young then served as director of the National Urban League (NUL) branch in Omaha, Nebraska in the early 1950s. In 1954 at the age of 33 Young was named Dean of the School of Social Work at Atlanta University. Young became active in the Atlanta National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and in 1960 was elected president of the Georgia NAACP.

In 1961 Whitney Young was named President of the National Urban League… He took over an organization that had not veered from its original purpose, to help black migrants from the South find jobs, and provide assistance while they adjusted to their new northern industrial surroundings. Young, however, transformed the League into a major civil rights organization. He called for a “Domestic Marshall Plan,” a program to get rid of poverty and deprivation among African Americans similar to the Marshall Plan that had been launched to reconstruct Europe after World War II. Young also initiated the Urban League “Street Academy,” an alternative education program to prepare high school dropouts for college. Whitney Young’ s programs for integration and racial justice were explained in two books he authored, To Be Equal (1964) and Beyond Racism (1969).”1

Young persisted in his belief that the issues of racism were everyone’s issues. For instance, in a 1964 interview he responded: “the present plight of Negro citizens -- and that plight is really a very serious one --- results not so much from historic ill will or good will, but actually what we’ve had in our society is about ten percent of white Americans who have been actively concerned and who have been actively working toward integration, about ten percent who have been actively resistant, who have worked to preserve the status quo, or to even send the Negro back to Africa. But about eighty per cent of white Americans have been largely indifferent. This has been active apathy, active indifference, so it hasn’t been ill will or good will; it’s been no will that is largely responsible.”2

“Young increased the budget of the National Urban League and created thousands of new jobs for African Americans. He also took part in a number of major civil rights demonstrations including the March on Washington on August 28, 1963.

In 1967 President Lyndon Johnson appointed him as a member of an American team to observe elections in South Vietnam. Young disagreed with Johnson over foreign policies and

1 Okocha, V. (2007, March 19) Whitney M. Young Jr. (1921-1971). Retrieved from https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/young-jr-whitney-m-1921-1971/ 2 https://whospeaks.library.vanderbilt.edu/interview/whitney-young Robert Penn Warren An Archival Collection

joined the campaign against the Vietnam War. He argued that it was diverting badly need funds from domestic programs for the poor.”3

3 Okocha, op cit