On Monday, March 8, 1965, the day after Bloody Sunday, Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King sent a telegram appeal to all faiths, urging clergy and all people of faith to come to Selma, Alabama to support their efforts of establishing equal voting rights. Rev. James Reeb left Boston and arrived there the following morning. By that evening, he lay unconscious in a Birmingham hospital with severe brain trauma after being beaten with a bat by a group of white supremacists. What kind of person lays down his life for people that he has never met before? Join us on Father’s Day and see what kind of a man James Reeb was.
Tinka Friend is a long-time member of this church. She is a docent of our church and interested in its history, as well as the history of Unitarian Universalism. She is a retired school teacher and in 2015, to honor the 50th year anniversary of the march from Selma to Montgomery, she and her husband, Nick, made a 2-month trek across the South visiting all the Civil Rights museums in four states, including the Selma, Alabama Memorials to Viola Liuzzo and Rev.James Reeb, two Unitarians who were murdered following Bloody Sunday. It was then that Tinka became determined to learn more about both of them.
Topics: Current or Recent Events, Principle 1. The Inherent Worth and Dignity of Every Person, Principle 2. Justice, Equity, and Compassion in human relations, Principle 6. The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all, Religious History, Social and Environmental Justice, UU Principles