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From Legacy to HopeUUA Launches Justice Consultancy on 40th Anniversary of the Murders of Civil Rights Crusaders
(Boston, March 11, 2005) While the United States observes the fortieth anniversary of the murders of civil rights martyrs Jimmie Lee Jackson, James Reeb, and Viola Liuzzo, the Unitarian Universalist Association prepares, in remembering these three martyrs, to launch a new justice consultancy program to empower UUs to work against oppression in their congregations and their communities. Jimmie Lee Jackson, an African American civil rights worker, died on February 26, 1965, after an Alabama state trooper shot him in the stomach at a voting rights march in his home town of Marion. Jackson's murder inspired the march from Selma to the State Capitol in Montgomery that was brutally turned back by lawmen. After the attack, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. issued a call to clergy of all faiths to come to Selma to support the marchers. About 500 Unitarian Universalists, including about one fifth of all UU ministers, rushed to Selma. One of the ministers, James Reeb, was attacked on March 9 while leaving a restaurant with two colleagues less than a day after he arrived. Reeb died of his injuries on March 11.Viola Liuzzo, a UU lay person from Detroit, was shot to death March 25 by Ku Klux Klansmen after the Selma to Montgomery march was finally completed. Forty years later, as commemorative events unfolded in Selma and along the route the civil rights marchers walked, UU leaders, those who lived through Bloody Sunday, and the relatives of those killed spoke of the legacy of their loved ones and the challenges our country still faces in the quest for equality and justice. The Rev. William G. Sinkford, President of the UUA, issued a statement marking the anniversary. He said, "The 40th anniversary of the Selma March provides the occasion for us to remember the brave women and men who risked their lives to fulfill the promise of equality upon which our country was founded. The marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge on 'Bloody Sunday' were met by dogs, fire-hoses, and clubs, yet they refused to surrender to the forces of violence and hatred. We honor the memories of Jimmy Lee Jackson, James Reeb, and Viola Liuzzo, who were killed by the evil of racism. "The sacrifices of Jackson, Reeb, Liuzzo, and Dr. King himself were not in vain. We have moved forward. But there is so much yet to be done. Our world still suffers and struggles to right the wrongs of the past and to imagine a future where all persons are seen as children of God. The best memorial to the Selma martyrs is a rededication of our lives to the cause of justice for which they died." The Rev. Clark Olsen, who was in was walking with Reeb and another minister
when the attackers struck said, "On this 40th anniversary of the Selma-Montgomery
voting rights march, we are moved to remember those whose deaths marked events
there: Jimmie Lee Jackson, Viola Liuzzo and
James Reeb. [The Rev.] Orloff Miller and I were with Reeb at the time we
were attacked, and with him when we rushed him to the hospital where he died.
Five days after Reeb's death the president addressed the nation and Congress
to urge passage of the Voting Rights Bill. [President Lyndon Baines] Johnson
singled out Reeb by stating: ‘In Selma, last week, one good man, a man of God,
was killed.' In the campaign for a voting rights law to remedy gross racial
injustices, apparently something had to be the final straw politically, and
Jim Reeb was that symbol. Passage of the Voting
Rights Act Present for the march events on Saturday, March 5, 2005, were Leah Reeb and Corrie Lubenow, grandchildren of James Reeb. The sisters gathered with Rev. Olsen and others who came to honor the sacrifice of Jackson, Reeb and Liuzzo at the unveiling of a new memorial honoring Reeb in Selma. The memorial was spearheaded by members of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta, Georgia. One of those who came to Selma for the march re-enactment was Mary Liuzzo Lilliboe, a daughter of Liuzzo, the only white woman killed in the civil rights struggle. Lilliboe said, "We can march in joy today where people walked in terror 40 years ago. We have to remember the cost that was paid or we'll forget its value. And if we forget how valuable it is, we'll forget to protect it." Penny Liuzzo Herrington of Tollhouse, CA, another daughter, was also at the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the march re-enactment. Forty years to the day after James Reeb died, a group of racially and culturally diverse UU consultants have come together in Boston to launch JUUST Change, a new transformational program for UU congregations. The weekend orientation meeting is being held in the Eliot Chapel at UUA headquarters, where a memorial to Jackson, Reeb and Liuzzo stands, and will include worship services commemorating the 40th Anniversary of this significant struggle for racial justice in UU history. UUA JUUST Change consultants will assist congregations with a developmental process of congregation-based anti-racist, anti-oppressive multicultural social action. Through this ministry to congregations and their professional and lay leadership, JUUST Change consultants can help identify internal leaders; facilitate group processes in developing vision and mission, dialogue, problem-solving, team development, developing capacities for building partnership in the larger community, and goal-setting/action planning. For more information on the JUUST Change program, see www.uua.org/programs/justice/antiracism/consultancy.html. For more information on the legacy of James Reeb and Viola Liuzzo in the
struggle for civil rights:
For more information on the fortieth Anniversary of the 1965 civil rights
struggle:
Archived UUA Coverage on Civil Rights Martyrs and Dedication of UUA Selma Memorial
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is probably the most powerful legislation that, long-term, will move this country
to justice for all. So many of us can be proud to have been in Selma. So many
of us grieve with Jim's family that change required a last straw. We grieve
as well with the families of Jimmie Lee Jackson and Viola Liuzzo. And we celebrate
the courage of many -- known and unknown -- who moved this nation toward the
democratic vision of justice and equality."
