Black History Month: Week Three | |
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IN CELEBRATION OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH
A Sign of Hope: Pope John Paul II’s meetings with the Black Catholic communities in New Orleans
On September 11, 1987, Saint John Paul II made a historic visit to New Orleans, where he met and addressed its Black Catholic community. Through the words and actions of these encounters, Saint John Paul II delivered a powerful message to the Catholics everywhere about the gifts that Black Catholics bring to the Church, a message that still resonates deeply in our society today.
A temporary exhibit for the month of February was inaugurated on Wednesday, February 19, 2025, at St. Paul II Shrine in Washington, DC, that testifies the importance of this historic visit through photos and objects from the Shrine’s collection and from Xavier University’s archives. The exhibit opening featured speakers Dr. Ansel Augustine, Assistant Director of African American Affairs at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and New Orleans native, and Mrs. Therese Wilson Favors, former Director of the Office of African American Catholic Ministries for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, both of them present at the 1987 event.
Click the play button above to watch the exhibit inaugural program, or click the link below.
Watch the video...
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We honor significant historical achievements by African Americans and spotlight an emerging young Black leader who is making
a difference today.
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Howard Thurman
1899-1981
The scholar whose words inspired Martin Luther King Jr.
He was a shy man who didn’t lead marches or give dramatic speeches. But Howard Thurman was a spiritual genius who transformed history.
Thurman was a pastor and professor and mystic whose groundbreaking book, “Jesus and the Disinherited,” was a condemnation of a form of Christianity which Thurman said was far too often “on the side of the strong and the powerful against the weak and oppressed.”
Read more...
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Dean Howard W Thurman - Howard University - detail from stained glass window
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0
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“For this is why we were born: People, all people, belong to each other, and he who shuts himself away diminishes himself, and he who shuts another away from him destroys himself.”
Howard Thurman
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Constance Baker Motley
1921-2005
Constance Baker Motley was an unlikely civil rights hero. An African American who grew up near Yale University, she did not personally experience overt racism until late in high school, and as a young person she was almost totally unaware of black history.
A 1998 portrait of U.S. District Judge Constance Baker Motley. Credit: Chester Higgins Archive.
But from the late 1940s through the early 1960s, Motley played a pivotal role in the fight to end racial segregation, putting her own safety at risk in one racial powder keg after another. She was the first African American woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court, and the first to serve as a federal judge.
Read more...
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Photograph shows Constance Baker Motley making a victory sign two days after her election as the first African American woman to serve in the New York State Senate.
Photo by Walter Albertin (World Telegram & Sun); restored by Adam Cuerden, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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Matthew Alexander Henson
1866–1955
Matthew Alexander Henson (August 8, 1866 – March 9, 1955) was an African American explorer who accompanied Robert Peary on seven voyages to the Arctic over a period of nearly 23 years. They spent a total of 18 years on expeditions together.[1] He is best known for his participation in the 1908–1909 expedition that claimed to have reached the geographic North Pole on April 6, 1909. Henson said he was the first of their party to reach the North Pole.
Henson was born in Nanjemoy, Maryland, to sharecropper parents who were free Black Americans before the Civil War. He spent most of his early life in Washington, D.C., but left school at the age of twelve to work as a cabin boy. He later returned to Washington and worked as a salesclerk at a department store. One of his customers was Robert Peary, who in 1887 hired him as a personal valet. At the time, Peary was working on the Nicaragua Canal.
Read more...
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Young Black Leaders' Spotlight | |
Mari Copeny, "Little Miss Flint"
Based on "About Mari Copeny" from www.maricopeny.com
Mari Copeny, known as Little Miss Flint, is a 16-year-old activist from Flint, Michigan. Born on July 6, 2007, she gained attention when her letter to President Obama about the Flint water crisis prompted his visit and the approval of $100 million in relief for the city. Despite her age, Mari has significantly influenced discussions around environmental racism and highlighted the struggles of those affected by state negligence.
In 2017, she became a national youth ambassador for the Women’s March and the National Climate March. Committed to social justice, she also works with the anti-bullying group Trendsetters Productions and sits on the board of Flint Youth Justice League, as well as the MDE Anti-Racism Student Advisory Council.
Mari has raised over $700,000 for Flint Kids projects, provided thousands of school supplies, and created a book project featuring authors of color for local children. Additionally, she has distributed over a million bottles of water and launched a partnership with Hydroviv to produce a water filter for communities facing toxic drinking water, raising over $700,000 for this initiative.
Her work has been featured in numerous publications including Teen Vogue, The Guardian, and TIME. Looking to the future, Mari plans to run for president in 2044.
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President Barack Obama hugs Mari Copeny, 8, backstage at Northwestern High School in Flint, Mich., May 4, 2016. Mari wrote a letter to the President about the Flint water crisis.
Photo by Pete Souza, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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"You formed my inmost being;
you knit me in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, because I am wonderfully made;
wonderful are your works!
My very self you know.
My bones are not hidden from you,
When I was being made in secret,
fashioned in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw me unformed;
in your book all are written down;
my days were shaped, before one came to be."
Psalm 139:13-16 NABRE
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Venerable Mother Elizabeth Lange
This video was created by the Office of Black Catholics of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge
Deacon Alfred Adams, Sr., Director
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Venerable Father Augustus Tolton
This video was created by the Office of Black Catholics of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge
Deacon Alfred Adams, Sr., Director
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Looking for a Worship Guide for Lent? | | |
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Return to me with all your heart: Reflections for Lent 2025
This year’s Lent booklet features reflections for every day of Lent from Ash Wednesday through Easter Sunday written by Ralph McCloud. Ralph, who was recently named the recipient of the Pax Christi USA Eileen Egan Peacemaker award, served for 16 years as the director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), an anti-poverty program of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Currently he is the board chair of the Catholic Mobilizing Network, serves on the Leadership Group for the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, and is a Senior Fellow at NETWORK Lobby in Washington DC. He has received multiple accolades and awards for his work as an advocate for those living in poverty and on the margins.
Join Ralph through a Lenten journey with the scriptures, as we watch Jesus move from his time in the desert to the heady days in Jerusalem leading up to his execution. How are we to respond as followers of Christ today, in the 21st century? What is the message God is sending us in this Jubilee year of hope and forgiveness?
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