In 1993, the National General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association had a costume ball. Since the meeting was in Charlotte, in the Thomas Jefferson District, the organizers invited people to dress in costume from Jefferson's time.
Jim Key, who is the president of the district, said he remembers that a black delegate asked, "Should we come in chains and rags?"
That comment ushered in a period a reflection among Unitarian Universalists about how welcoming the name "Thomas Jefferson" was to black members, Key said. A movement to change the district name in the late 1990s failed, but yesterday, the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Winston-Salem took up the matter again, ahead of the district's annual meeting on Friday and Saturday in South Carolina.
After a short debate, the fellowship again rejected a name change, said Janet Owen, the president of the board of trustees for the Winston-Salem Fellowship.
"Everybody had done a lot of thinking and they pretty much had made up their minds," she said.
Owen said that the people in the fellowship who had reservations about changing the name thought that Jefferson was a complicated man -- a slave owner and a product of his times, but still a great intellectual and leader.
The fellowship's four delegates to the district meeting will vote against changing the district's name, she said.
If the assembly votes to change the district's name, it will choose from among three possibilities: Atlantic Southeast District, Toward-Justice District and Towne Jordan District, which recognizes two 19th century leaders in the Unitarian and Universalist traditions.
The Thomas Jefferson District is made up of 62 congregations and has close to 11,000 congregants, Key said. It was formed in 1945 and includes the states of Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Jefferson was the author of the Declaration of Independence, but he was also a slave owner, Key said. He was not Unitarian, but he has long been seen as an important icon in liberal religious thought.
Despite that, Key said that he was in favor of changing the district's name.
The nation is becoming a multicultural society, he said. White people of European descent will eventually be in the minority.
"It doesn't take much of a stretch," he said, "to realize that any institution, if it's going to grow, will have to figure out a way to embrace multiculturalism."
Owen wouldn't say how she felt about the vote.
She said that she has heard much from both sides.
"Some say we shouldn't change. This is our history. This is who we are," she said. "Others say this person we've named the district after isn't a hero to our African-American members."
The number of black members in the local fellowship is small, Owen said. But the fellowship has a history of working to advance race relations and would like to attract more minorities.
"It's a tough issue," Owen said. "No matter who wins this debate, there will be a group that feels they've lost something very important to them."
mgiunca@wsjournal.com
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