National African American History month

As a first generation immigrant who grew up with a strong sense of the universal Church, I remember how shocked I was to learn in an American Catholic history class at Our Lady's University how long it to the Church in America to ordain African American priests. February is National African American History month. I'd like to bring your attention to some excellent resources on the American Catholic experience.

Quick Facts on Black Catholic History
[From the Archdiocese of Milwaukee's thinkpriest.org]


My Church Home
The Irish, the Italians, the Poles, the Mexicans — it’s second nature to think of members of these ethnic groups as Catholic. So much so that group and faith are inextricably linked in the imagination of the American public...

And yet, as Cyprian Davis observes in his book, blacks have been part of the U.S. Catholic faithful from the start, “add[ing] another essential perspective to the meaning of the word ‘Catholic’ and to the understanding of the American Catholic church.”
[full article at Notre Dame Magazine]

A biography of Franciscan Sister Mary Antona Ebo, one of six Catholic sisters who participated in the 1965 Selma March
[Catholic News Service]

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning-"my country 'tis of thee; sweet land of liberty; of thee I sing; land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride; from every mountain side, let freedom ring"-and if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. [Martin Luther King, Jr]