(Boston, August 4, 2005) The New Democracy Coalition yesterday honored UUA President William G. Sinkford with the first "Rev. James Reeb New Democracy Service Award" at a ceremony at the Massachusetts State House. The award ceremony was the final event in a morning "teach-in" held by a coalition of civil rights groups working to raise awareness of the need to extend key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which is due to expire in 2007. The events were organized by Kevin Peterson of the New Democracy Coalition and chaired by the Hon. Judge Charles Walker, who presented the Reeb award to Sinkford "for work in the area of civil rights on the 40 th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act." Speaking to a deeply moved crowd, Walker recounted Reeb's heroic sacrifice in Selma and read excerpts from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's eulogy of the slain Unitarian Universalist minister: "One day the history of this great period of social will be written in all its completeness...When this glorious story is written, the name of James Reeb will stand as a shining example of manhood at its best."
