BLACK HISTORY MONTH FEATURED ARTICLE BONUS – Black Catholic History Timeline
Here’s a good timeline of Black Catholics throughout US history, a great part of Black history.
Composed by Fr. Cyprian Davis, OSB. Some highlights:
1565-1899: St. Augustine, Florida
Blacks, both slave and free, help to found this oldest town in the United States. In 1693 Spain offers freedom in Florida to slaves who convert to Catholicism.”
1829: Oblate Sisters of Providence
A handful of women from Baltimore’s Haitian refugee colony begin to educate local children in their homes. With the support of the archbishop, in 1829 they create the Oblate Sisters of Providence. The first superior is Elizabeth Lange, born in Cuba of Haitian parents.
1920: First Seminary for Blacks
The Society of the Divine Word in Greenville, Mississippi, with the blessing of Pope Benedict XV, opens St. Augustine’s, the first seminary for blacks. Some American bishops are still not convinced of the merit of a black priesthood.
1958: Denunciation of Racism
American bishops denounce racial prejudice as immoral for the first time.
The rest of the timeline: