Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: We Are All Bound Up Together

This Women’s History Month, we explore the life and witness of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper – poet, novelist, abolitionist, suffragist, and one of the most powerful moral voices of Reconstruction. Born free yet never fully safe in a slaveholding nation, Harper refused to divide justice by race or gender. Through her novels, poems, and activism, she insisted that “we are all bound up together.” This sermon traces the Reconstruction-Suffrage split, Harper’s courageous refusal to rank human worth, and the lessons her faith, feminism, and fierce hope offer Unitarian Universalists today.

Bob Clegg is a member of All Souls Waccamaw UUs of Myrtle Beach, SC. He holds an M.Div. degree from Wesley Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from University of Oregon. In 2023, he retired from Justice Jobs of Maryland, a free nonprofit employment office which he founded and led for six years. Now, Bob volunteers as worship coordinator at All Souls Waccamaw, warehouse assistant at the Eastern Carolinas Housing Organization, co-chair for South Carolina’s UU Justice Alliance’s Economic Justice Team, advocate for people facing eviction through the NAACP South Carolina Legal Aid Anti-Eviction Program, and treasurer for a progressive Horry County Council candidate. Bob and his wife Connie live near Conway SC with their dog Yancey.

The service will begin at 11:00 a.m. and will be available on Facebook Live. To participate remotely, go to the ASWUU Facebook page and click the Live link.

We have our monthly potluck after the service with food, coffee, and conversation. You may bring a dish to share if you would like to do so.

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