Short answers, pulled from the story.
Charles Francis Potter established the First Humanist Society of New York in 1929. He did not work alone and formed an advisory board that included Julian Huxley, John Dewey, Albert Einstein, and Thomas Mann.
Potter and his wife Clara Cook Potter published Humanism: A New Religion in 1930. They framed humanism explicitly as a new form of religion rather than just a philosophical stance to spread their ideas across the country.
Throughout the 1930s Potter championed women's rights as a core societal goal for the First Humanist Society of New York. He also pushed for access to birth control information and services during these years alongside support for civil divorce laws.
The group emerged directly from the Unitarian tradition within early twentieth-century America. Social climate conditions favored new experiments in spiritual organization during that period after World War I.
Religious humanism today still references this organization as a foundational example. Scholars trace modern secular ethics back to ideas first articulated by Potter and his colleagues who remain a reference point for non-theistic spiritual paths.