"To Uplift the Race"
Thu, May 08
|First Unitarian Church, Rochester
Deconstructing Mythologies of Unitarian Anti-Racism, Lecture 2 by Rev. Lisa Friedman
Time & Location
May 08, 2025, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
First Unitarian Church, Rochester, 220 S Winton Rd, Rochester, NY 14610, USA
About the event
Lecture 2: "To Uplift the Race"
Deconstructing Mythologies of Unitarian Anti-Racism
by Rev. Lisa Friedman
Join us in person or online for this second lecture in the 2025 Minns Lecture Series. Since merger Unitarian Universalism has struggled with constructing a white anti-racist identity. Recent scholarship centering black lives and revealing the depths of white supremacy culture has challenged the usual pre-merger historical narrative, which centered heroic Unitarian abolitionists and 20th century political leaders. The three Minns Lectures for 2025 seek to demythologize this common narrative.
The series begins with the significant Unitarian presence at the Port Royal, S.C., “rehearsal for reconstruction” during and after the Civil War. Moving to the turn of the century, the second lecture will show how Unitarians remained comfortably situated in their privileged caste, supporting industrial education to "uplift the race" while remaining silent as Reconstruction crumbled and the Lost Cause movement resurrected the dominance of…