Nantucket church cites ‘our own whiteness’ in canceling Fourth of July readingsBoston Herald, May 30, 2026
A church on Nantucket says it won’t host its Fourth of July readings of the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights as America celebrates its 250th anniversary because of “our own whiteness.”
Division has sprouted in the quaint Massachusetts island community after the Nantucket Unitarian Universalists announced that it wouldn’t be holding its annual holiday readings of America’s founding documents in “political protest.”
The Nantucket Unitarian Universalists, which says it puts its “faith into action through social justice work,” is pointing directly to the Supreme Court’s ruling that electoral mapmakers relied too heavily on racial demographics to hit specific minority-representation targets.
“We came to this decision in large measure because of the recent gutting of the 1965 Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court,” Rev. Erin Splaine and the group’s board of trustees wrote in a letter to the Nantucket Current news outlet on Thursday. ” A celebration without context and the centering of the fullness of our American Story only perpetuates the harm, injustice, and anti-democratic process.”
Our cancelling the 4th of July celebration this year reflects the deep concern we are feeling since the Supreme Court decision,” the letter continues, “as well as an on-going process within the congregation to better understand our own whiteness and how we can be part of changing an inherently unfair system which has been in place for 250 years.”
Other Fourth of July celebrations have also been cancelled elsewhere in Massachusetts. But unlike municipal financial constraints in Rutland, Framingham, and Northampton, the Nantucket church’s postponement is purely political.
More:
https://www.bostonherald.com/2026/05/30/nantucket-church-cites-our-own-whiteness-in-canceling-fourth-of-july-readings/
