The Freedom From Religion Foundation is excited to be a co-sponsor of an upcoming freethought conference for women of color.
The Women of Color Beyond Belief II conference, taking place at the Marriott Chicago Midway Sept. 24- 26, is the only national secular forum exclusively focused on the perspectives of women of color atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers and skeptics. The conference will “highlight the social justice work of women of color within the secular community, and provide an intersectional, feminist vision of leadership and activism in secularism,” according to the conference website. The historic first Women of Color Beyond Belief conference was held in 2019, and the second annual conference, due to the pandemic, was rescheduled to be held this year.
The many speakers at the event include Cheryl Abram, a social worker, a learning and development specialist, an evaluation thought leader and the author of Firing God, and Candace Gorham, a former evangelical minister who has founded the Ebony Exodus Project to explore the reasons record numbers of black women have been leaving the church.
The organizations sponsoring the conference include Black Nonbelievers, a nonprofit headquartered in Atlanta that connects people of color who are living free of religion, Black Skeptics, which promotes the work of black skeptics, freethinkers, atheists, agnostics and secular humanists through community outreach, education and social justice initiatives, and Women’s Leadership Project, a black feminist humanist group mentoring, civic engagement and service-learning advocacy program designed to educate and train high-school-age women of color in South Los Angeles.
“The more we make our presence known, the better our chances of working together to turn around some of the disparities we face,” says Mandisa Thomas, president of Black Nonbelievers. “We are NOT alone.”
FFRF, a state/church watchdog and freethought association, was accorded the category of “legendary sponsor” for granting $10,000 to help make possible the event.
“We’re delighted to be co-sponsoring the Women of Color Beyond Belief conference, which is such a worthwhile and needed event to ensure the voices of nonreligious women of color are heard,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.
Please click this link to register for the conference.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with more than 35,000 members and several chapters across the country. FFRF protects the constitutional separation between state and church and educates the public about nontheism.