Left to right: Maria Echaveste, Ass't to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff; President Clinton; Sanford Cloud, Jr, President and CEO of the National Conference for Community and Justice; Ben Johnson, Ass't to the President and Director of the One America Initiative. Official White House photo.

(Boston, MA – March 9, 2000) Four Unitarian Universalist leaders are at the White House today for a meeting which coincides with an infamous day in civil rights history. The Rev. Mel Hoover, Director of the UUA department of Faith in Action; the Rev. Laurel Hallman, senior minister of the First Unitarian Church of Dallas, TX; UUA Mid-South District Executive Eunice Benton, and UUA consultant Robette Dias are among 150 religious leaders attending a meeting at the White House as part of President Clinton's Initiative on Race: One America in the 21st Century. The UUA's "Journey toward Wholeness" program has been chosen by the White House as one of the nation's "Promising Practices" in the struggle against racism.

The event occurs on the 35th anniversary of the bludgeoning attack on three UU ministers which, two days later, left one dead and a denomination forever changed. On the evening of March 9, 1965, UU ministers James Reeb, Orloff Miller, and Clark Olsen were attacked by a group of white thugs in Selma, Alabama. The three were among dozens of UU ministers and lay people who had answered Martin Luther King's call to church people to come to Selma after the brutal attack several days earlier against African-American marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Reeb died of his injuries on March 11, 1965.

The Rev. James Reeb

Mel Hoover, reflecting on the opportunity to be part of the White House meeting, said, "I am honored to represent the UUA at this important meeting at the White House, and I am struck that this call to meet with President Clinton around renewing the call for racial justice in America is taking place on March 9th. This is 35 years to the day since our own Reverend James Reeb, along with Clark Olsen and Orloff Miller, was attacked as he witnessed for racial justice in Selma, Alabama. James died as a result of his injuries on March 11. He carried his faith into the lion's den and he ended up being a sacrifice to the cause.

"I will carry his spirit with me and share it with my fellow religious colleagues gathered today at the White House. May it inspire us all to speak the truth to the President and the country. I will also share with people our Unitarian Universalist "Journey Toward Wholeness" anti-racism program, which has been selected by the President's Commission on Race as one of the country's best practices in the fight against racism. My hope is that we will begin a new journey towards racial justice and wholeness, a journey in which the religious community once again leads the country in making real the vision of the "Beloved Community."

In the New York Times: "A Civil Rights Martyr Remembered"
The Rev. Clark Olsen's memories of the murder of Jim Reeb in Selma in 1965

Called to the White House!
Reflections on an afternoon in the East Room, March 9, 2000, from Eunice Milton Benton, Mid-South District Executive

The Call to Build One America
Reflections on a day at the White House, from Robette Ann Dias, UUA field consultant, Department of Faith in Action

Introductory remarks to the "One America" meeting
from Sanford Cloud, Jr, President and CEO - The National Conference for Community and Justice

Remarks from the President of the United States at the "One America" meeting

Letter from President Clinton on the 'One America' initiative

For more information about James Reeb, Unitarian Universalist involvement in the struggle for civil rights, and the UUA's Journey Toward Wholeness program, see these links:

• No Greater Love: The James Reeb Story, by Duncan Howlett
• "Who Is James Reeb" booklet, from the James Reeb UU Congregation, Madison, WI
• For further reading (none available on the web):
  • "The Liberal Context" (Spring, 1965): entire issue devoted to Selma
  • "James Reeb: Civil Rights Martyr," by Rev. Homer Jack in "Friends Journal" (March, 1990)
  • "They Died for Freedom," by Jan Gardner in the WORLD (March/April, 1996)
  • "The Martyrs: 16 Who Gave Their Lives for Racial Justice," by Jack Mendelsohn (out of print but available in libraries)
• The UUA Journey Toward Wholeness Program

Unitarian Universalist Association
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