[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.

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.

"[1] Sinkford has previously considered himself a "card-carrying atheist" who in 1997, after his comatose son had recovered, began to develop a "prayer life centered on thankfulness and gratefulness to God.

Sofía Betancourt of Starr King School for the Ministry and Dr. Leon Spencer, professor emeritus in Leadership, Technology, and Human Development at Georgia Southern University.

[12] Sinkford was born in San Francisco and attended Harvard University, where he was among those vocal in their opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War; upon commencement in 1968 he joined a group of students calling it "unjust and immoral" and pledging publicly not to serve in the armed forces, even if drafted.

[13] He graduated cum laude in 1968, then spent a year in Greece as a Michael Clark Rockefeller Fellow.