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Researchers and activists from the Cape Ann Slavery and Abolition Trust scheduled a website launch for Martin Luther King Jr. Day to remind white Northerners that they, too, benefitted from slavery. The trust grew out of two Massachusetts congregations, Gloucester UU Church and the UU Society of Rockport. A leader of the group, Joseph Rukeyser, said, “Our cotton mills, our distilleries, our great ship building, our fishing, and our worldwide traders all were involved in profiting from the free labor of slaves.” (Gloucester Times, January 19)
Stained glass leads to love of bright colors
Landscape painter Marsha Donahue credits her late father, the Rev. Donald Hinkley, for her love of bright colors. Hinkley was a UU minister, and Donahue grew up with the stained glass windows of churches in central and northern Maine. “The windows were mind-blowingly beautiful, and they obviously had a big impact on me,” Donahue said. (Press-Herald, January 19)
Memorable Unitarian Universalists
Family and friends remembered Woodrow Coleman as “a tough and courageous fighter for civil rights” at a recent memorial service at the UU Church of Long Beach, California. Coleman, who died after a short illness on January 5 at age 85, was arrested so many times for his activism that the judge knew him by his first name. Eric Mann, founder and director of the Los Angeles Labor/Community Strategy Center, said that “Woodrow was . . . a non-violent protester willing to put his body on the line for many and, if he could, every good cause . . . He was truly tireless with such a great love of the people.” (Press-Telegram, January 17)
Victoria Schnepps attended the funeral of her friend, Ann Jawin, at the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock in Manhasset, New York, where Jawin was a long-time member. Schnepps said, “For years, I’ve passed their street sign . . . but I never took the road to their place of worship. Ann brought me there for her funeral. . . . I was hooked, and knew I wanted to come back.” (QNS, January 19)