2012 Proposed Congregational Mission Statement
"The members and friends of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester covenant to be a congregation of love, hope and justice inspiring people to take on the challenges of a changing world."
Welcoming Church
Mission Statement
The LGBTQI and Allies of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester strives to further the affirmation and celebration of LGBTQI individuals in all aspects of the church community. We also seek to increase the visibility of UUCW as a Welcoming Congregation within the greater community.
|
|
|
|
The Terrible Cost of Social Progress
 Yesterday, at a district minister's meeting I had the opportunity to meet Leroy Moton, a man now in his late 60's, whose name is written into the history of the Civil Rights movement in this country and our Unitarian Universalist heritage. At the age of 19, Leroy Moton was a transportation coordinator for the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) for the famous march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in March of 1965. What I know of this march I largely learned from my father, who was Unitarian Universalist minster that responded to the call by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to join the march, following the death of UU minister, Rev. James Reeb.
Moton had spent the day of the march, on March 25, transporting marchers back from Montgomery to Selma. He has been using the car of Viola Luizzo, a nurse from Detroit, MI, and mother of 5 who had driven to Alabama to aid in the cause of the Civil Rights movement. She had worked aid stations that day and then agreed at the end of the day to drive Leroy Moton back to Montgomery after they had dropped off a car load of marchers in Selma. On their way back, the car Viola was driving was chased by a car load of KKK members. She was shot and killed and Leroy was left, presumed dead.
 Viola Luizzo was a member of the Unitarian Church in Detroit and was the first white woman killed in the Civil Rights movement. Following her death the FBI engaged in what can only be called an intentional smear campaign to discredit her presence in Alabama, accusing her of being both taking drugs and having sexual relations with black men involved in the Civil Rights movement as well as the fact that her husband was a Teamster and knew Jimmy Hoffa. The documentary Home of the Brave, details the lengths to which her family went to clear her name and the terrible cost her death had on her children and husband.
Leroy Moton survived the horrendous attack on March 25, 1965, but spent days in jail "for his own protection" (an ironic claim given that he had a $20,000 bond at the time), and was accused of having a personal relationship with Viola Luizzo. His time with ministers in our district was spent retelling the story of the cover up, the trial of FBI informant Gary Thomas Rowe who was one of the men in the car that chased Viola and Leroy, if not the actual shooter (though this has never been proved but is highly suspected by many). For his work in with the Civil Rights movement he lost his job, and so did his mother. He was threatened with lynching and had to flee Selma, where he grew up, in order to regain some semblance of safety.
His story of courage, survival, and determination to tell the real story of the death of one of our Unitarian martyrs, and the U.S. government's attempted cover up, is one of the often forgotten part of our liberal religious legacy.
Today, I am remembering the ultimate price that Viola Luizzo, James Reeb, Martin Luther King Jr, and so many people paid for the right to vote and the other civil rights in this country. As we continue to debate immigration reform, and continue to struggle for parity and equal access in our voting system, I am reminded of the cost of this freedom we have, and the responsibility all of us have to continue the work that Viola and Leroy, among so many others, began.
Blessings,
Aaron
|
|
|
|
|
