This collection of Quaker minutes and statements on police violence and racism come from Quaker organizations, meetings, and churches. Black lives matter. FCNL and the larger Quaker world are proclaiming this truth in our communities, our actions, and our statements.
FCNL seeks a society free of racism, as set out in our policy statement, The World We Seek:
“The people of the United States continue to live with the legacy of slavery, white supremacy, institutional racism, and oppression. Many groups experience ongoing discrimination and hate based on race, religion, or ethnicity. We must continue to seek reconciliation and remediation. While individuals must examine their own unintended, unrecognized personal racism, the federal government has a special responsibility to establish policies that acknowledge our history and create genuine equality of opportunity.”
Below, please find minutes FCNL has received from meetings across the country and statements from Quaker organizations responding to rising awareness of white supremacy, systemic racism, and police violence.
In Quaker meetings and churches, meeting minutes represent the wording of a decision or an agreed upon action to be taken by the meeting or church as a whole. FCNL recognizes the vitality of minutes as advocacy tools and as a means of communicating to members of Congress how a body of their constituents is thinking and acting on a particular issue.
If your organization, church, or meeting has approved a minute, statement, or resource on systemic racism and/or police violence, please email it to Bobby Trice (rtrice@fcnl.org) to include it in this collection. He will follow up with you to offer support in sharing your minute or statement with your members of Congress as another way to change public policy with faith-in-action.
Meeting Minutes on Racism, Policing, and Violence
Statements and resources from Quaker organizations
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The BlackQuaker Project: Anti-Violence Resource Guide for Quakers Confronting Systemic Violence, June 19, 2020.
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Fellowship of Friends of African Descent: A Message Regarding State Sanctioned Violence, June 17, 2020.
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Tools for Racial Justice: A ministry supported by Barnestable Friends Meeting (Preparative) and Mattapoisett Friends Meeting.
Yearly Meeting Statements
- Wilmington Yearly Meeting: Statement on Racial Justice, July 24, 2020.
- Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting: Minute for Black Lives, June 13, 2020.
- Britain Yearly Meeting: Examining Quaker privilege and commitment to an equal world, June 9, 2020.
- Evangelical Friends Church International - North America: A Letter for Our Times, June 8, 2020.
- New England Yearly Meeting: Epistle, A Time for Repentance and Transformation, June 5, 2020.
- Western Yearly Meeting: For this Time, June 2, 2020.
- North Pacific Yearly Meeting: Uprooting Racism Minute, July 21, 2019.
- Baltimore Yearly Meeting: Declaration by Baltimore Yearly Meeting as an Anti-Racist Faith Community
- Philadelphia Yearly Meeting: Addressing Racism
- South Central Yearly Meeting: Monthly Meeting Minutes about Black Lives Matter, Police Violence and Ending White Supremacy
- Lake Erie Yearly Meeting: Collection of Minutes on Peace, Justice, and Anti-Racism
Friends General Conference
- Friends, what does justice require of us?, June 5, 2020.
- Responding to Systemic Racism with Systemic Love, June 4, 2020.
Friends Journal
- A Quaker Antiracist Reading List, June 3, 2020.
- Are We Ready to Make the Necessary Changes? by Vanessa Julye, January 1, 2020.
QuakerSpeak
American Friends Service Committee
- Racial Justice
- We Won’t Stop Until We Dismantle the Whole Racist System, June 4, 2020.
- Denormalizing Whiteness for Racial Justice
Quaker Voluntary Service
- What is your right next step? June 3, 2020.