Rev. Johns Buehrens and Worship Associate Bob Sadler

Before the Civil War, African American activists in the North refuses to celebrate July 4 as “Independence Day.” They met on July 5, the anniversary of the day New York finally abolished slavery. Protests about institutionalized racism this summer have been compared to those in 1968. Dr. Buehrens heard his call to ministry then. As a historian, he would also compare this moment to the polarization in American over race going back to the 1850s, when both Unitarian minister Theodore Park and black abolitionist Fredrick Douglass were calling for a Second American Revolution. He will give an analysis of the prospects for revolutionary change now in 2020.