November is Black Catholic History Month

In 1990, the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus designated the month of November as a time to honor as well as to celebrate the heritage of Black Catholics.  African Americans have not only helped build the American Catholic Church, but they have also impacted the Universal Church.

Three percent, or three million, of American Catholics are African American. There are 798 parishes that are predominately African American in the United States and 250 African American priests. African American religious sisters number 400; there are 50 African American religious brothers; and 16 African American bishops, 10 of which are still active.

The first initiatives among Black Catholics came from religious women. In 1828, the Colored Female Roman Catholic Beneficial Society was founded in Washington, D.C.  Mother Elizabeth Lange founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence in 1829, the first religious community for African Americans. In 1842, Mother Harriett Delille, founded the Sisters of the Holy Family.

During this time, a Black man born in Haiti and speaking French, was performing extraordinary works of charity in New York. For his efforts, in 1996 Pope John Paul II declared Pierre Toussaint, a freed slave, as Venerable.

In 1839, Pope Gregory XVI condemned the slave trade in the document In Supremo  Apotolatus.

Fifteen years later, James A. Healy, born in 1824 of mixed African and Irish ancestry, was ordained a priest and 20 years after that, in 1874, he was named bishop of Portland, Maine. He served as bishop for 25 years until his death in 1900. Most of the 10 siblings achieved success, including two as priests; Father Patrick Healy, S.J. who became president of Georgetown University, and Father Alexander Sherwood Healy.

Father Augustine Tolton, a former slave, was ordained a priest in 1866. That same year, the Second Plenary Council in Baltimore encouraged schools and orphanages for African Americans, and to erect separate churches or to invite African Americans to already existing churches.

In 1871, the Josephite Society of the Sacred Heart was founded as an interracial, intercultural community of priests and brothers to work to advance the teachings of the church in the African American community. The first African American priests ordained in the community were Father Charles R. Uncles, ordained 1891, Father John Henry Dorsey, in 1902, and Father John Joseph Plantevigne, in 1907. In 1909, the Josephite fathers founded the Knights and Ladies Auxiliary of St. Peter Claver.

Lay Black Catholics were also making important contributions. Daniel Rudd founded the Black Catholic Congress in 1889 and the American Catholic Tribune in 1886, the first Catholic newspaper owned by an African American.

The Committee for the Advancement of Colored Catholics was established in 1916 to help African American servicemen during World War I. The first seminary for African Americans was found in 1920 at Greenville, Mississippi by the Society of the Divine Word.

St. Elizabeth Church, which merged with St. Monica’s in 1924, is the oldest African American institution in Chicago and is known as “The Mother Church.” St. Katherine Drexel founded Xavier University in Louisiana in 1925.

Other notable black clergy and religious include: Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, past president of United States Conference of Catholic Bishops;Father Cyprian Davis, OSB, author, historian and a founding member of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus in 1968; Bishop Carl Fisher the first black bishop in the western United States; Archbishop Eugene A. Marino, SSJ, first African American archbishop; Archbishop James Lyke, OFM, who rose from extreme poverty as a child to become archbishop; Father James E. Goode, OFM, founder and president of the National Black Catholic Apostolate for Life; Sister Cora Marie Billings, RSM, first African American sister to head a parish in United States; and Sister Shawnee Daniels Sykes, SSND, the first African American Catholic bioethics theologian.

Married and single Black Catholics have made their mark on history. Jean Baptiste Pointe de Sable is called the “Father of Chicago.” Mary Edomonia Lewis was the first African American sculptor to achieve international recognition as an artist.

Dr. Lena Edwards Madison, a medical doctor, wife and mother of six children, received the Medal of Freedom in 1964—the highest honor awarded in peacetime in the United States. Llewellyn Scott, a convert, founded a homeless shelter in Washington, D.C. in 1935 for African American men.

Composer Mary Lou Williams helped start the Bel Canto Foundation that assisted addicted musicians return to performing. Eleanora Figaro was the first African American woman to receive the Church’s Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice in 1949.

Dolores B. Grier was the first laywoman to hold the position of vice chancellor of the Archdiocese of New York. Norman Francis became President of Xavier University and was a recipient of Medal of Freedom.

Other important facts in Black Catholic history include: founding of the National Black Sisters’ Conference in 1968; organizing the National Office for Black Catholics in 1970; founding of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies of Xavier University in 1980; raising of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church to the rank of Minor Basilica in 1991, the first predominately African American Basilica in United States; and founding of the National Association of African American Catholic Deacons in 1993.