BLACK HISTORY MONTH FEATURED ARTICLE 2 (Feb 12) – National Catholic Reporter article (2015): Catholics at Selma
Meant to edit things and post it yesterday.
Here’s the 2nd featured article of this month, a continuation of last week’s look at Catholics in the Civil Rights Movement; this time more broadly, particularly Catholics at Selma.
“Catholics played a prominent role in Selma, much more than in previous civil rights demonstrations. Never before had Catholic activists turned out in such large numbers.”
“Early in 1965, Edmundite Fr. Maurice Ouellet, pastor of St. Elizabeth’s African-American mission in Selma, answered a knock at his door. He was surprised to see King standing on the front step. ‘The Negro people tell me there is one white man in Selma who is black,’ King said by way of introduction, ‘and I want to meet him.'”
“Priests, nuns and laypeople made the pilgrimage to Alabama in unprecedented numbers, adding a distinctive Catholic presence to the Selma protests. Delegations came from all regions . . .”
“The Selma experience profoundly affected Catholic participants. William Riordan from Santa Barbara, Calif., testified, ‘All of us felt our lives were enriched by the loving manner in which the Selma Negroes cared for us.'”
Below is above of Franciscan Sr. Mary Antona Ebo (1924-2017) during the 1965 protest in Selma, Alabama.
Photo of Sr. Mary Antona Ebois below is a screen shot from here. Credit: CNS/ Bettman/Corbis/PBS) Fair Use.