Unitarian Universalists are engaged in the Black Lives Matter movement and are mobilizing in the broader movement for black liberation. At 5 p.m. on Thursday, June 23, the Unitarian Universalist Association is hosting an interfaith State of Emergence rally at the Ohio Statehouse in collaboration with the Ohio Student Association, the People’s Justice Project, UU Justice Ohio, the Islamic Circle of North America, the Union of Reform Judaism, and the United Church of Christ.

Most Unitarian Universalists are white, but they don’t see this as a reason to sit on the sidelines of the struggle for racial justice. The entire ministry team and several members of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus turned out for the June 15 Justice for Henry Green protest wearing yellow Standing on the Side of Love T-shirts.

In news reports about the police killing of Henry Green, who is black, it’s noted that Green owned a firearm. “Ohio has a continuing problem of being an open carry state,” said Rev. Lane Campbell, minister of religious education at the First UU Church. “But it seems that in practice, it’s only acceptable for certain folks to open carry.”

A petition demanding justice for Henry Green will be circulated at the State of Emergence rally, and is also available online. Rain location is the Batelle Room at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.