“With support from the Fahs Collaborative at Meadville Lombard Theological School, a new iteration of the multiracial families retreat is organized and held at Ferry Beach in Maine. The programming explores our spiritual paths, including rites of passage that bear witness to our experiences. Five core leaders of this effort emerged: Dr. Mark A. Hicks, Rev. Dr. Hope Johnson, Dr. Janice Marie Johnson, Lily Rappaport and Sana Saeed.”

At GA in Spokane, UUA and DRUUMM leaders signed a five-year memorandum of understanding, reviewable in 2024. The UUA restores an explicit commitment of financial, administrative, and resource support to DRUUMM, while DRUUMM commits to creating spaces for UU people of color to worship, connect, and support one another. (Pictured: Sana Saeed, Ranwa Hammamy, Susan Frederick-Gray, Carey MacDonald).

DRUUMM, led by the Rev. Marisol Caballero, Ben Gabel and Darrick Jackson, establishes the Global Majorities Collective. Designed as a cohort of multigenerational Unitarian Universalist People of Color working to create innovative contributions toward the creation of a multicultural UUism. This group will work to amplify and cross ­pollinate the talents and skills of its members to create liturgical, cultural, and other resources to de­center whiteness within UUism. Twenty people gather for a retreat in Detroit MI. The program goes on hiatus in 2018.

After the unexpected resignation of UUA President Rev. Peter Morales, the UUA Board appoints Rev. Sofia Betancourt, Dr. Leon Spencer and Rev. Dr. Bill Sinkford as Acting Co-Presidents. Leon is the first lay leader and Sofia the first woman to hold the office.

DRUUMM issues a public statement in support of the Journey Towards Wholeness, concerned about the backsliding heading into the 20th year of the General Assembly resolution.

DRUUMM works in partnership with the Allies for Racial Equity and UU partners to host a national convening in New Orleans with a call to action in support of the climate justice movement. Over 50 members attend, led by DRUUMM President the Rev. Maria Cristina Vlassidis.

The DRUUMM Steering Committee begins to shift to support regional DRUUMM Gatherings. One of the first is held in San Diego CA led in partnership with the local DRUUMM Chapter.

After 14 years of support, that has dwindled with the dissolution of the Faith in Action office, and budget cuts having reducing annual support to $20,000, in addition to new concepts of governance and accountability, the UUA eliminates funding and the Board ends the affiliate relationship.

The first professional staffing was provided out of the Young Adult and Campus Ministries Office, first by Joseph Santos-Lyons, then Elandria Williams as part of the UUA Journey Towards Wholeness response. By 2008,. The Rev. Monica Cummings is hired to work full-time in support of Youth and Young Adults of Color, based in the new Multicultural Growth and Witness Office.. The position is cut to half-time in 2013, and Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen is hired to fill the part-time role.

A series of incidents at the YaYA leadership school held at the First Unitarian Dallas congregation, including reports to police and experiences of racial discrimination from UU congregants, results in the UUA convening a special commission to investigate. The commission of Rev. Jose Ballester, Janice Marie Johnson, Hafidha Acuay, Margaret Kiep and Rachel Davis issues a 25 pgae report in 2006 with recommendations around GA policies and practices.

Coming out of a convening of theologians and anti-racist organizers, the Rev. Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley helps edit a book of theological reflections on anti-racism. The book lifts up UU and non-UU voices, and provides key observations around the centrality of worldview, historical roots of UU collusion, and addressing internalized oppression. Speakers include James Cone, William Jones, Rosemary Bray McNatt, Patricia Jiminez, and more.

A group of 5 Asian/Pacific Islanders meet at General Assembly and lay the groundwork for the caucus to form, led by Young Kim, Karen Eng, Vivian Hao, Kok Heong McNaughton. The caucus has extensive discussions leading to formal affiliation with DRUUMM.

Seminarians of Color organize through DRUUMM and start meeting virtually, publishing a directory, monthly conference call featuring fellowshipped Ministers of Color, and gathering at General Assembly. In 2005 the UUA begins to fund a stipend for coordinating he network. This ends by 2012. Pictured: Rev. Archene Turner)

Rev. Sinkford, former member of the founding DRUUMM Steering Committee and member of AAUUM, is elected President of the UUA, earning 2,218 votes to 1,043 votes for Rev. Diane Miller. News media cover the historic election of a Black Minister of a predominately White demonination.

Noted as one of the first African American women members of a Unitarian Church, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was an author, civil rights and abolition activist. After years of neglect and disrepair, Black UU’s remember and restore her grave in Philadelphia.

DRUUMM members are called into service to serve as official representatives with the UUA Journey Towards Wholeness Transformation Committee, the UUA Diversity of Ministry Team, and UUMA Committee on Anti-Racism, Anti-Oppression and Multiculturalism. (Pictured: Rev John Gilmore/Om Prakash)

Mostly anonymous complaints emerge from UUA Staff, District Staff and Ministers in response to Youth and Young Adult of Color organizers reaching out. White ministers and congregation leaders criticize outreach to churches to engage POC. LREDA and Youth Advisors become critical allies.

LUUNA earlier published a critique of the UUA’s anti-racism efforts called “The Baltimore Papers” in 1998. The next year Bringing Gifts was published to provide alternative analyses and methods to raise awareness of racial issues.

Over 50 people gather outside Bremerton WA for a Multiracial Families and Families of Color Retreat. Planning is led by Rev. Suzelle Lynch, Young Kim and Joseph Santos-Lyons and Robette Dias. Retreats continue through 2003 with limited PNWD and UUA support. Retreats are later held in California and Oregon.

The UUA Faith in Action Office, recognizing the role of Ministers of Color in the Journey Towards Wholeness work, agrees to provide ongoing staff support (including Robette Dias, Joseph Santos-Lyons, Danielle Di Bona, Marta Valentin) and $40,000 is budgeted for general operations.

AAUUMM votes to expand their mission, and calls for a meeting in Los Gatos, CA of UU Religious Professionals of Color. Around thirty UU Religious Professionals of Color meet together and becomes DRUUMM in 1998.

The next steps from the 1992 Racial and Cultural Diversity Resolution, racial justice and People of Color ministry advocates present their findings from four years of study to the UUA GA in Indianapolis. Entitled “Journey Towards Wholeness, The Next Steps” outlines vision of moving from racial and cultural diversity to anti-oppression, anti-racism and multiculturalism. LUUNA critiques the findings as a “dichotomous
program taking into account only blacks and whites”.

The Black Concerns Working Group creates and offers the first “Creating a Jubilee World” workshops for congregations. The weekend training helps participants understand what is involved in nurturing a multicultural community and working against racism in all of its forms. The UUA discontinues active Jubilee trainings by 2005, although several indepenent efforts continue in Oakland and Washington DC.

Despite protests in advance, from UU Black and People of Color, the UUA General Assembly in Charlotte, NC hosts a ball with participants encouraged to attend in “period dress”. Leaders in AAUUM ask at the plenary “Should Blacks wear rags, or a ball and chain?”

Over 100 Black Unitarian Universalists gather for a September weekend conference. The weekend includes worship, workshops and discussions.Rev. Daniel Aldridge of All Souls Church Washington DC organized the placing of a headstone on the unmarked grave of Francis Ellen Watkins Harper. Harper had provided a prophetic voice in the 1800s on civil and human rights. During the preparations for the ceremony, the original headstone was found sunk beneath the soil.

A new UU affiliate organization is founded to advocate on Native American issues. Founded primarily by White Ally UU’s including Helen Henry, who had been in relationship with Native American leaders, the group engages a number of UU and non-UU indigenous leaders in education and advocacy efforts including the campaign to protect Dzil Nchaa Saan with the UU Service Committee. Lasts until the early 2000s.

A new organization of Black ministers and religious professionals was founded. This group was a primary support system, mentoring for seminarians, and advocacy group for Black UUs, met at General Assembly and had their own annual meeting. They numbered around twenty people at their height. The Network continued to be a place for Black laypeople.

Originally a separate congregation, named for Catholic Archbishop of San Salvador Óscar Romero, nested within First Unitarian Church, Los Angeles. The Oscar Romero Congregation was organized in 1985 around Ricardo Zelada, a refugee from El Salvador given sanctuary within the church. Most of the original members of the Oscar Romero Congregation were asylum seekers from El Salvador, but subsequent members are from many different parts of the Spanish-speaking world. The congregation lasts until 2000.

With multi-year support, new ministries are developed primarily in places including Atlanta, Durham, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle, with the intention of supporting Black ministry. Around a dozen efforts are supported, with a lifespan of 5-10 years.

Pictured: UUA Moderator Denise Davidoff (center) is shown with the Rev. Daniel Aldridge Jr. and the Rev. Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley at Aldridge’s installation as senior minister of All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C., in 1994. The Rev. Aldridge was minister of the Thurman Hamer Ellington UU Congregation new start in Atlanta GA.

A loose network of Black UU’s who met through UUA General Assemblies and Urban Ministries meetings is created. This is the first association-wide culturally specific group known to exist since the Black Affairs Council and Black UU Caucus of the 1960s. (pictured. The Rev. Yvonne Seon Chappelle)

The UUA Board of Trustees votes to undertake a significant review to identify practices and policies that “impede good race relations”. The term “racism” was itself still controversial in UU circles.The report made thirty-two recommendations. The top issues were around the lack of affirmative action policies, discrimination in the ministerial formation process. Copies of the report were sent to all UUA congregations in 1981. Few recommendations were adopted and implemented.

Rev. Dr. William Jones publishes “Is God a White Racist? A Preamble to Black Theology, out of Beacon Press. This foundational text raises the question of divine racism which he contends is implicit in theological method, purpose and content. Dr. Jones goes on to serve on the UUA Board of Trustees, and becomes one of the most well-known Black Humanists of the 20th century.

In January 1970, the UUA Board, citing their own financial struggles, voted to restructure payments to BAC, spreading them over five years instead of four. Angered and hurt, BAC disaffiliated from the UUA in April 1970. Many members left Unitarian Universalism. The UUA does not fully fund the 1968 GA Resolution, leaving a legacy of distrust and hurt. (Pictured: UUA President Bob West)

Black Unitarian Universalists organize, develop infrastructure, leadership, and a proposal to the General Assembly for multiyear funding. After a contentious debate, the General Assembly of the UUA in Cleveland, OH passes a resolution formally recognizing and providing $250,000 a year for four years for the Black Affairs Council (BAC). BAC sought to develop Black controlled projects to aid Black people.