Racial Justice Team

Mission and History

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Urbana Champaign (UUCUC) has a history of
action for racial justice. In 1968, UUCUC ordained and called one of the first African-
American Unitarian Universalist ministers, Rev. Renford Gaines, who later changed his
name to Mwalimu Imara. Other former ministers of the church were directly involved in
the civil rights movement, and more recent ministers, Rev. Elaine Gehrmann and Rev.
Axel Gehrmann, led workshops on white privilege and worked on reform of the local
justice system. Our previous minister, Rev. Florence Caplow, was involved in interfaith
efforts to promote racial justice, including organizing an interfaith vigil in fall, 2019, in
response to local and national gun violence, in collaboration with the Ministerial Alliance
and the CU Trauma and Resilience Initiative.


In May 2016, the congregation chose the Racial Justice Initiative (RJI) as its two-year
initiative. In 2018, the congregation voted to place a “Black Lives Matter” banner on the
building and to create an ongoing group, the Racial Justice Project (later renamed
Racial Justice Team, RJT), to continue the work. We, like many UU churches, have a
high percentage of white members, so much of the work has been focused on
education and increasing awareness about systemic racism, white privilege, and the
effects of white supremacy culture for the church and the wider progressive white
community.


UUCUC has hosted film screenings, workshops, educational training, and church
services on themes such as the history of slavery and its continuing reconstruction,
mass incarceration, policing, cultural competency, reparations, and systemic racism.
RJT continues to provide workshops, movie screenings, and other educational
opportunities to our church members and friends from the community. In partnership
with our Religious Exploration and Engagement program we are considering how these
activities can be reframed as part of our congregation’s religious education. One
ongoing educational opportunity is our Racial Justice book discussion group, offered to
adults who are teen-aged or older.

  • Through funding efforts and volunteer activities, UUCUC has supported many
    local community groups doing racial justice work. These include the Community
    Coalition Race Relations group, Racial Taboo Working Group, CU SURJ, First
    Followers, Books to Prisoners, the Education Justice Project, CU Trauma and
    Resilience Initiative, CU Reparations Coalition, the Randolph St. Garden, and the
    NAACP. In October, 2019, and again in October, 2023, we received the
    President’s Award from the Champaign County chapter of NAACP for our
    ongoing support of racial justice activities.
  • Through participation in community events, RJT is increasing UUCUC’s visibility
    around issues of race and racial justice.
  • RJT will continue to partner with Rev. Beth Monhollen and Rev. Sally Fritsche on
    church services that explore race and racial justice.
  • RJT is leading the congregation in reflecting critically on the procedures,
    documents, and practices within our congregation that might deter people of
    color from becoming more fully a part of our community.
  • We support the Unitarian Universalist Association’s work to dismantle racism
    within Unitarian Universalism and we promote Black Lives of UU, a national
    advocacy and support group for people of color within our churches. We recently
    promoted UUCUC’s adoption of the “8 th Principle” that explicitly promotes anti-
    racist actions in Unitarian Universalist congregations.
    The members of the Racial Justice Team look forward to helping the congregation
    maintain racial justice education and advocacy as a sustained, central part of our
    church.

Documentation and Meeting Minutes
Meeting Minutes

Membership and Email Communications
Membership on the Racial Justice Team is open to anyone. If you choose not to be a
member at this time, you can still receive email updates about RJT activities. To set up
your membership and communications preferences, please fill out the form HERE.

Contact Information
If you have questions or would like to become more directly involved in the activities of
RJT, please contact the team leads: Karla Peterson and Wendy Hartley.

Racial Justice Action Resources

Disparate Impact of Coronavirus on People of Color
– Coronavirus and Race (Race Forward, 2020)

Upcoming Events

[tribe_events_list category=”racial-justice-project” events_per_page=”5″]

Recent News and Announcements