MLK Action

New For Your Consideration …

A report released this month, August, 2026 by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston documented a staggering wealth gap between white families and families of color.  While white families reported a median net wealth of $549,200.00, Black families median net wealth is $7,800.00 and Hispanic families $1,200.00.  The study was done SPECIFICALLY IN MASSACHUSETTS.  For more detailed information, read the articles at https://www.wbur.org/news/2026/08/12/fed-report-massachusetts-wealth-gap and/or https://www.bostonfed.org/publications/one-time-pubs/color-of-wealth.aspx 

Upcoming Events

News & activities the MLK Action Team wants to share with our neighbors (see details below)

Democracy Fest – As we enter this critical midterm election season, NIA member congregation, First Parish Brewster Unitarian Universalist (FPBUU) is bringing our community together to celebrate the democratic and civic values that unite us. This community-wide Democracy Fest will inspire and connect people with meaningful ways to strengthen our democracy, protect our rights, and become active participants in civic life.  Please join us on Saturday, September 19, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at UU First Parish Brewster, 1969 Main Street, Brewster.

MLK Action Team and Belonging Books are collaborating on the “On Morrison” Book Club. Using Namwali Serpell’s book, “On Morrison,” as guidance, we will explore Toni Morrison’s literary canon in a book club setting at Belonging Books (438 Main St. Hyannis). Participants will be invited to read the Morrison book or essay and also read the chapter in “On Morrison.” We will have community agreements up front and a facilitator for each meeting.

October’s discussion will focus on The Bluest Eye and Chapter 1 “Nobody Knows the Bluest Eyes” from Serpell’s book.  This book discussion will take place every other month on the second Thursday from 5 – 6:30 pm.  No advance registration is needed and people can choose to attend one or many of the year long offerings.

Namwali Serpell was born in Lusaka, Zambia and lives in New York. She is a fiction writer, a literary critic, and a professor of English at Harvard University. 

Nothing More of This Land Discussion Group (MA Great Reads 2026) – NEW DATE!

Join Brooks Free Library on Monday, September 21st from 1 to 2 pm for an engaging discussion about Joseph Lee’s memoir Nothing More of This Land: Community, Power, and the Search for Indigenous Identity. Registered participants will receive a free copy of the book (while supplies last) and be invited to a virtual Q&A with the author on Tuesday, September 29th at 6 pm. Library copies of the book will also be available.

This discussion series is part of the 2026 Great Reads MA program, sponsored by the Massachusetts Center for the Book.  Before Martha’s Vineyard became one of the most iconic vacation destinations in the country, it was home to the Wampanoag people. Today, as tourists flock to the idyllic beaches, the island has become increasingly unaffordable for tribal members, with nearly three-quarters now living off-island. Growing up Aquinnah Wampanoag, journalist Joseph Lee grappled with what this situation meant for his tribe, how the community can continue to grow, and more broadly, what it means to be Indigenous.  Author, Joseph Lee is an Aquinnah Wampanoag writer based in New York City.

https://brooksfreelibrary.libcal.com/calendar/?cid=-1&t=d&d=2026-09-21&cal=-1&inc=0

NEW (9/9) The Arts & Justice Collective, in collaboration with South Congregational Church, Centerville, announces the Negro Spiritual Royalties Inititative (NSRI), a new program created by the Social Justice Matters team of South Congregational Church in Centerville and managed collaboratively with the Hyannis-based Arts & Justice Collective.

Rooted in the plantation fields of the American South, Negro Spirituals (the term most commonly used by Black Americans and historians for this body of music) were forged out of the lived experience of enslaved communities. Passed down through oral tradition, these songs served as personal prayers, communal strength, and declarations of faith. Crucially, many Spirituals carried dual meanings—functioning both as expressions of spiritual salvation and as coded communications that signaled escape routes, meeting points, and directions to physical freedom along the Underground Railroad. Unlike other hymns and worship music, Negro Spirituals were not published until after the names of their creators were long forgotten, if they were ever even known. Many of these songs were eventually written down, and have become the source of countless musical arrangements and compositions published and sold to churches, schools, community choruses, orchestras, bands, and all manner of musical organizations. Due to the erasure of the original composers, neither the artists or their descendants benefit financially from the continued usage of these spirituals in worship or other settings.

A number of Congregational churches in MA and around the country have established Negro Spiritual royalty programs to acknowlege, through royalty offerings to Black musicians working today, the importance of and lack of compensation given to the creators of Negro Spirituals. South Congregational Church in Centerville has affirmed the artistic and spiritual worth of all Negro Spirituals by developing its own NSRI effort to support local Black musicians. The congregation is invited to participate in giving to this Initiative three times in the year, and all the Negro Spirituals sung each period are recorded and documented.

The Arts & Justice Collective conducted a focus group with local Black musicians, on behalf of South Congregational Church’s NSRI, to determine the best steps for distributing these funds. On 9/15, the Collective will publish the NSRI Enrollment Form, allowing Black-identifying local
musicians to opt into the pool of beneficiaries of the fund. After an initial enrollment period of one month, an advisory committee will be formed from the enrolled musicians, who will oversee the regular distribution of funds to the pool. The enrollment form can be accessed at TheArtsAndJusticeCollective.com.

The Arts & Justice Collective is a group of non-profit and mission driven organizations based on Cape Cod, MA. Amplify POC Cape Cod, Belonging Books, and The Cordial Eye use their collective strengths, missions and resources to empower each other and their community to create a culture of belonging for members of historically-excluded groups through art, culture and social justice. Learn more at www.theartsandjusticecollective.com .

Looking for books to recommend to your kids or visiting grandchildren?  Check out the many beautiful suggestions on the website of Social Justice Books: https://www.socialjusticebooks.org/   You can find them by topic and/or by reading/grade level.

MLK Action Team member and Education Task Force Co-Chair recently wrote a guest column in the Cape Cod Chronicle “North Harwich’s Historical Significance from a Cape Verdean Perspective”.  Read the article here:  https://nausetinterfaith.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/North-Harwich-Historical-Significance.pdf 

There are many state legislative proposals that align with the mission and values of Nauset Interfaith Association.  An excellent source of information regarding proposals can be found on the website of the State League of Women Voters https://my.lwv.org/massachusetts/cape-cod-area/2025-2026-lwvcca-followed-legislation

Combat Racial Wealth Inequities by supporting local businesses with BIPOC (Black, Indigeneous, Persons of Color) owners.  AmplifyPOCcapecod.com is a nonprofit dedicated to educating about and eliminating the racial wealth gap.  They maintain an across the Cape list of businesses owned by persons of color.  Here, thanks to NIA member M.A. Watson, is a curated list of businesses with an easy drive for NIA members: https://nausetinterfaith.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AMPLIFY-POC-Business.pdf   Businesses include restaurants, and numerous other services.

– Link to Community Conversation “Racism on Cape Cod: What are our institutions doing and what can we do”: https://www.youtube.com/live/jJAQdRSFDYQ  

Feeling the Need to “Do Something”?  Here’s are suggestions from AltaMed to contribute to your community: https://nausetinterfaith.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Community-Support-Activities-pdf.pdf

If searching for ways to talk to kids about race, check out the website EmbraceRace here https://www.embracerace.org/ 

Link to a list of Anti-Racism Resources including books, films, podcasts and more recently shared with us by a team member:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BRlF2_zhNe86SGgHa6-VlBO-QgirITwCTugSfKie5Fs/edit   Document compiled by Sarah Sophie Flicker, Alyssa Klein in May 2020.

Open Eyes Travel – posting photos from travel that opens our eyes to a more inclusive US History.   If you want to share travel experiences that may help us broaden our understanding of the contributions of persons of color to our US history, please send them to me with brief explanation of photo at boujoukosk@comcast.net

View MLK Action Team Public Service Announcement with Lower Cape TV here:  https://vimeo.com/816645523

Please note that many of the event flyers below are not NIA sponsored events.  All NIA events will be listed here as well as on our calendar page.

Any Time Activity

Celebrating the Mosaic: Sites of Historic and Cultural Significance for the Many People Who Call ( & Have Called) Cape Cod home, a fun, self-paced, (virtual or in person) educational scavenger hunt activity for people of all ages.  PDF LINK

Past Special Events

Education Task Force

The mission of the MLK Education Task Force is to help our communities reflect deeply on the way that race and other identifiers negatively impact education through thoughtful and thought-provoking learning opportunities. Our goal is to help to create safe, kind, and equitable educational communities by offering collaborative, value-added solutions to deficits in our educational systems and by providing BIPOC residents of Cape Cod, with a particular focus on educators and students, with social and professional support.

Current Initiatives:

• DEI centered conference, free to all Cape Cod educators will be held on July 11, 2023 at the MRSD high school on Oak St. in Harwich.  Watch this site for detailed information soon.
• Community Book Drive to bring literature featuring children and families from a variety of cultures and ethnicities into our local classrooms successfully concluded with approximately 40 new books going to each Nauset and Monomoy School District 3rd grade classroom library.  Book drives are held on alternating years from the educators’ conference.  This year’s book drive will benefit the Dennis Yarmouth School District which has one of the largest and fastest growing BIPOC student populations on the Cape.
• Educator Mentorship Network to match newly hired educators of color with current and retired educators of color to help navigate their early career years.   
• Celebrating the Mosaic: Sites of Historic and Cultural Significance for the Many People Who Call ( & Have Called) Cape Cod Home, a fun, self-paced, (virtual or in person) educational scavenger hunt activity for people of all ages.  NOW available through link on this webpage.

LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL STUDY GROUPS

Most Americans are familiar with Dr. Martin Luther King’s ” I Have A Dream,” moving address; however, fewer than 10% have read and studied his ” Letter From Birmingham Jail,” considered by most scholars as his most important work.