Telling Untold Stories to Promote Equity and Justice
Reflection by Mark Marnocha
Sermon by Rev. Jim Coakley & Judy Goldsmith
This month we remember the 100th anniversary of one of the worst tragedies of racial violence in the United States, the Tulsa Race Massacre; an untold story kept hidden for almost a century. Driven by a climate of extreme racial tension and set off by merely a rumor, white supremacist mobs destroyed “Black Wall Street”, one of the most prosperous black communities at the time. Tragically, the volatile environment was stoked by a locally famous Unitarian, Richard Lloyd Jones. Today, All Souls Unitarian Church is a leader in the reconciliation and healing of Tulsa. Closer to home in Fond du Lac, Judy Goldsmith, a well-known feminist and long-time member of the Open Circle Fellowship, has pioneered an effort to tell the untold stories of African Americans to ease fear and racial tension in her community to prevent tragic events like Tulsa’s from repeating.
