Susan Bartlett Foote author of The Crusade for Forgotten Souls – Reforming Minnesota’s Mental Institutions 1946-1954, University of Minnesota Press, 2018, will be speaking at Mission Peak on Saturday, May 11, 2019 from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm.  You are warmly invited to attend.  The talk will be videotaped for those of you who can’t make it in person.

Susan tells the story of how Unitarians in Minnesota helped to reform snake-pit conditions in state mental institutions, organizing many effective activities working with the Governor, other agencies of the government, the press and other religious institutions in principled activism.  This is how it is done when it is done right!   She also will tell about how many reforms were later overturned by tightfisted conservative politicians and bureaucrats.  But, as she explains, there are many important lessons that emerged and which apply to us today, the chief one of which is the necessity of being eternally vigilant.

Susan dedicates the book to her former father-in-law Rev. Arthur Foote the minister at Unity Unitarian in St. Paul, Minnesota who spearheaded the effort, and whose notes led her to research and write this book when she found them in a closet of her home.  You can read a UU World article about the book at: https://www.uuworld.org/articles/history-book-reviews-spring-2019