336-248-2140
office@fpclexnc.com

Race Unification Committee

Background and Formation
In June 2020, two months after George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and after requests from the Salem Presbytery and the Presbytery’s Peace and Justice Task Force, the Clerk of First Presbyterian Church’s Session requested the formation of a committee to consider possible steps toward racial justice and reconciliation. An eleven-member committee met for the first time in August 2020 and named itself the Race Unification Committee (RUC).
 
Purpose

In 2021, after discussions at three consecutive regular meetings, RUC members approved this Purpose Statement for the committee:

“We are here on earth to illuminate and live out God’s love for all people, each one a brother or sister in Christ. Through prayer, study, personal and congregational discovery, communication and partnership with others, and action, the Race Unification Committee seeks to provide a path forward to understanding, justice, healing, and peace.”

We believe this purpose fits well within the Mission and Vision statements of First Presbyterian Church.

Meeting Schedule

The RUC meets monthly on the second Monday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. The RUC also leads discussions of books and films about racial topics and participates in community activities outside of its normal meeting schedule.

Contact

We encourage your involvement in the RUC. For further information or to get involved, contact the church office at 336-248-2140 or office@fpclexnc.com.

Resources
Books

  • Baldwin, Betty Kilby, and Kilby, Phoebe. “Cousins” (2021).
  • Curry, Michael. “Love Is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times” (2020).
  • Evans, Tony. “Oneness Embraced: Reconciliation, the Kingdom, and How We Are Stronger Together” (2011).
  • Gaines, Robert D., and Heidelberg, Andrew. “Heidelberg of the Norfolk
    17″ (2023).
  • Hannah-Jones, Nikole et al., “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story” (2021).
  • Irving, Debbie. “Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race” (2014).
  • Meeks, Catherine. “The Night is Long but Light Comes in the Morning: Meditations for Racial Healing” (2022).
  • Mills, Cheri L. “Lent of Liberation: Confronting the Legacy of American Slavery” (2021).
  • Smith, Clint. “How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery across America” (2021).
  • Thurman, Howard. “Jesus and the Disinherited” (1949).
  • Tyson, Timothy B. “Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story” (2004).
  • Wallis, Jim. “America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America” (2016).
  • Washington, James M. (Editor). “A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr.” (1986).
  • Zucchino, David. “Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy” (2020).
Films

  • “American Coup: Wilmington 1898” (2024), 2:00, PBS. Explores the overthrow of Wilmington NC’s biracial government in 1898 by white supremacists, the violence that followed, and the destruction of Black economic and political power.
  • “The Best of Enemies” (2019), 2:52, from Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or Vudu. The true story of the unlikely relationship between an outspoken civil rights activist, and a local Ku Klux Klan leader, who come together to co-chair a community summit on the desegregation of schools in Durham, N.C.
  • “Glory” (1989) 1:34, Rated R (for language and a few non-sensationalized bloody battle scenes). Adapted story of the 54th Infantry, the first formal unit of the Union Army to be made up entirely of African-American enlisted men; all of the officers were white men.
  • “The Great Debaters” (2007) 2:06, Rated PG-13. Based on a true story, The Great Debaters revolves around efforts to place the debate team at Wiley College (a historically black college in Marshall, Texas) on equal footing with whites during the 1930s, when Jim Crow laws were common and lynch mobs were a fear for blacks.
  • “Green Book” (2018) 2:10, Rated PG-13. The 2018 Oscar winner for Best Picture is based on a true story about a world-class African-American pianist, who is about to embark on a concert tour in the Deep South in 1962, and must hire a white man for driving and protection. The two men soon develop an unexpected bond while confronting racism and danger in an era of segregation.
  • “Harriet” (2019), 2:05, rated PG-13. From her escape from slavery through the dangerous missions she led to liberate hundreds of slaves through the Underground Railroad, the film based on the heroic abolitionist Harriet Tubman is told.
  • “The Hate U Give (2018), 2:12, PG-13. The film is based on the young adult fictional novel by Angie Thomas, and is a powerful & racially charged film addressing pervasive battles along color lines & economic strata.
  • “The Help” (2011), 2:26, PG-13. The film is based on a fictional novel, where a young white woman, an aspiring journalist builds relationships with two black maids during the Civil Rights Movement in 1963, Jackson, Mississippi.
  • “Hidden Figures” (2016), 2:07, PG. Adapted from the non-fiction book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race, which explores the biographies of three African-American women who worked as human computers to solve problems for engineers and others at NASA.
  • “Just Mercy” (2019), 2:16, PG-13. Adapted from the book, Just Mercy, which more or less accurately portrayed the arrest of a black man in 1987 and charged with the murder of an 18-year-old white woman who was shot in broad daylight at the Monroeville, Alabama dry-cleaning shop where she worked.
  • “The Long Walk Home” (1990), 1:38, PG. A fictional story inspired by actual events surrounding the Montgomery Bus boycott in 1955.
  • “Loving” (2016), 2:03 PG-13. The real-life story of Richard and Mildred Loving, a Virginia couple who were arrested because interracial marriage was illegal in their home state
  • “Mudbound” (2017), 2:14, R. A striking portrait of prejudice, loosely based on a true story.
  • “Race” (2016), 2:14, PG-13.  2016 biographical sports drama film about African-American athlete Jesse Owens, who won a record-breaking four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.
  • “Remember the Titans” (2000), 2 hrs, PG. This comedy-drama is based on the true story of a high school in Virginia that is integrated with white and black students, who learn to work together on the football field.
  • “Selma” (2014), 2:08, PG-13. An historical drama film based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches.
  • “12 Years a Slave” (2013), 2:14, R. A biographical drama film based on the 1852 slave memoir Twelve Years a Slave, by Solomon Northup,, an African American man who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C. by two conmen in 1841 and sold into slavery.
  • “42” (2013), 2:08, PG-13. The Story Of Jackie Robinson is — with a few exceptions — a biopic about Robinson’s integration of Major League Baseball that really rings true.
 
TV Movies/Documentaries/Program Segments

  • “And the Children Shall Lead” (1985) TV movie, 58 min. Mississippi in the early ’60s is the setting for this story of a 12-year-old African-American girl who, along with her white friends, tries to ease increasing racial tensions.
  • “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” (1974) CBS movie 1:58. Story of a black woman in the South who was born into slavery in the 1850s and lives to become a part of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
  • “The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song.” (2021), PBS. Four hour series, exploring the 400-year-old story of the black church in America, the changing nature of worship spaces, and the men and women who shepherded them from the pulpit, the choir loft, and the church pews. Narrated by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
  • “Eyes on the Prize” (1987) PBS documentary series, various lengths. The series tells the definitive story of the civil rights era from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose extraordinary actions launched a movement that changed the fabric of American life, and embodied a struggle whose reverberations continue to be felt today.
  • “Freedom Riders” PBS (aired 4/1/23), TV movie, 2 hrs. A powerful harrowing and ultimately inspirational story of six months in 1961 that changed America forever. From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives—and many endured savage beatings and imprisonment—for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South.
  • “Grave Injustice” (2023) CBS 60 Minutes. 13 min, 3 sec. 60 Minutes – Newsmakers.    Forgotten Black cemeteries uncovered in Florida.
  • “The History Makers” (2023) CBS 60 Minutes, 13min, 20 sec. Documenting Black history through first-person accounts.
  • “Race: The Power of an Illusion” (2003) PBS. Three-part documentary (30 minutes each) that investigates the idea of race in society, science, and history.
  • “Reconstruction: America After the Civil War.” (2019), PBS. A four-hour series, exploring interviews with historians, authors and other experts, studying the transformative years following the Civil War through the rise of Jim Crow segregation. Narrated by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
  • “Slavery by Another Name” (2012) PBS, 90 minutes. A Pulitzer Prize winning documentary in a moving, sobering account of a little-known crime against African Americans, and the insidious legacy of racism that reverberates today.
  • “13th” (2016), 1:40, Netflix. This American documentary film explores the “intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States.” It is titled after the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, adopted in 1865, which abolished slavery throughout the United States.
 
Denominational, Presbytery and Church Resources

 
Miscellaneous

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