Building the Rainbow of Steel: The Secret History of Black History—A Multiracial Unitarian Universalist Perspective – Rev. Dr. Finley Campbell
The Rev. Dr. Finley Campbell will share his vision of multiracial Unitarian Universalism as way to make sure that the divisive issue of race doesn’t blind us to the other important yet related issues facing us in the 2022 election: the dangers of violent civil insurgency, the threatening, non-violent movement shifting the US American political economy from the bourgeois democratic republic to the bourgeois oligarchic republic; the emergence of Cold War II with its menace of World War III. We can draw important lessons from our UU legacy where we have dealt with racism, old and new. The main lesson for committed Unitarian Universalists in the 21st century is to look at the multiracial nature of black history as an historical theist inspiration which will empower us to deal courageously with the coming rage of storm.
The Rev. Dr. Finley Campbell is an ordained Baptist minister and a long-time Unitarian Universalist. He is the program coordinator of the Chicago Nucleus of the Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship; co-chairs the Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice (Chicago), and is a founder and now Vice-chair, the Unitarian Universalist Multiracial Unity Action Council.
His educational background focused on socio-political literature as the Fifth Gospel and includes a BA from Morehouse College (1956), and MA from Atlanta University (1958) and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago (1969). He has worked as an Assistant Professor of Humanities at many institutions from 1960-2009 including but not limited to Morehouse College, Wabash College, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and DeVry University-Chicago.
In addition, he has led an active political life serving as acting minister of education for the Indiana Chapter of the Black Panther Party and founder of its Rainbow Coalition partner, the Indiana Peace and Freedom Party (1969-1972); the InterNational Committee Against Racism (1973-1993); and the Chicago Democratic Party, 2001 to the present.