Racial Justice

We are a Racial Justice Congregation. We are a congregation committed to racial equity and justice, within ourselves, our church, and the wider community.

Our congregation adopted the 8th Principle of Unitarian Universalism in May 2023: “We covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse and multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.”

First UU Organizations

Social Justice Committee

The Social Justice Committee (SJC) has designated member(s) to work with our racial justice partners in the larger community and congregation. We work in coordination with our Inclusion Team to build a diverse and multicultural Beloved Community at First UU, and with our partner organizations to promote racial justice in the community. We recognize the inherent worth and dignity of all people, and acknowledge that the United States was built on a legacy of oppression, racism, and slavery that continues to take new, ever-changing forms and serve to perpetuate the status quo. We acknowledge that oppression takes many intersecting forms and engage in active support with local, national, online, Black Lives Matter and UUA sponsored groups, to help break the tyrannical systemic oppression of people of color.

Or Racial Justice budget provides support to the annual UUA Diverse Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries (DRUUMM) service and donates annual to the Carver Community Cultural Center in response to the UUA’s 2022 Action of Immediate Witness (AIW) regarding Anti-Racism and Reparations via Restorative Justice. We also organize contributions and participation in local annual events such as the NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner.

For more information about Racial Justice work at First UU, contact socialjustice@uusat.org.

San Anto Gente Engaged with Unitarian Universalism (SAGE-UU)

San Anto Gente Engaged with Unitarian Universalism is our local Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) group. It was inspired and formed as First UU hosted the Diverse Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries (DRUUMM) Family Reunion in the Fall of 2018. This call was answered by the BIPOC members of our congregation, as well as white allies.

The mission of SAGE-UU is threefold: to provide fellowship to BIPOC friends and members of First UU, to promote leadership locally and nationally from within our BIPOC communities, and to develop and lead culturally relevant worship. The group has been responsible for BIPOC members joining the First UU Board of Trustees and promoting inclusive worship services. We successfully lobbied to rename our campus buildings, removing the honoring of slavers, and continue to represent BIPOC perspectives to the betterment of our entire congregation, as need arise.

For more information about SAGE-UU, visit their Facebook page or socialjustice@uusat.org.

Partner Organizations

Act4SA

Act4SA empowers the San Antonio community through base building, grassroots actions, educational campaigns, and more.  Organizers and volunteers focus on police accountability in Bexar County and the municipalities surrounding it, to achieve the accountable, compassionate, and transparent public safety system we all deserve. 

Texas Organizing Project  (TOP)

The Texas Organizing Project (TOP)  organizes Black and Latino communities in Dallas, Harris and Bexar counties with the goal of transforming Texas into a state where working people of color have the power and representation they deserve.

Diverse Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries (DRUUMM)

DRUUMM is a national Unitarian Universalist People of Color Ministry and anti-racist collective bringing lay and religious professionals together to overcome racism through resistance, and transform Unitarian Universalism through their multicultural experiences.