William_G._Sinkford
The Rev. William G. Sinkford (born 1946) is a Unitarian Universalist minister who served as the seventh president of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA), from 2001 to 2009.[3] His installation as UUA president made him the first African American to lead that organization, or any traditionally white religious denomination in the United States.[4][5]
Mr. Sinkford, spent his childhood in Cincinnati and became a Unitarian-Universalist when he was 14 years old. He wrote, I claimed the church when as a young black man, I walked into First Unitarian, Cincinnati, and found a religious community where I could be fully myself. Though he left in the 1970s believing that the Universalists had retreated from engagement with racial justice. He returned to find a religious home for his two children. He was ordained in 1995.[6] In April 2017, Sinkford was appointed interim co-president of the UUA (along with Rev. Dr. Sofia Betancourt and Dr. Leon Spencer) following the resignation of Sinkford's successor, Rev. Peter Morales. Sinkford served until the election of a new president, Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, in June 2017.[7]
Since 2010[update], he has served as the senior minister for the First Unitarian Church in Portland, Oregon.[8]