On March 26, 1889, Archbishop Patrick Ryan wrote to Mother Katharine Drexel to inform her that he had secured a priest to minister to the Black Catholics in Philadelphia.[1] There had been a growing need for a dedicated ministry for some time. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Black Catholics did not have  a church of their own but rather attended Mass at various churches in the city, such as Old St. Joe’s, Old St. Mary’s, and Holy Trinity.[2] It was Father Hiltermann of Holy Trinity that was one of the first to recognize the importance of giving the Black Catholics their own spac ..read more

St. Peter Claver On March 19, 1889, Katharine Drexel decided to found a new order to advance the cause of Native-American and African-American education. On February 12, 1891, Katharine pronounced her vows as the first member of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People. She added one vow to the usual ones of poverty, chastity, and obedience: “To be the mother and servant of the Indian and Negro races according to the rule of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament; and not to undertake any work which would lead to the neglect or abandonment of the Indian and Colored ..read more

Halvey_M133_005: Catholic Interracial Council of Philadelphia. Teachers' conference St. Elizabeth's Church, 03/16/1957 In the 1930s, there was a growing interest in cooperation between white and black Catholics to work against prejudice and towards interracial justice. This led to the creation of the Catholic Interracial Council of New York in 1934 by Father John LaFarge, S.J.[1] LaFarge hoped that local chapters would be opened across the country to meet the needs of each individual diocese. This grassroots style structure would then work within the Catholic Church to achieve social justi ..read more

Thanks to our volunteer Andy Staszkiw for his help with this post. PAHRC’s significant collection of periodicals includes newspapers and journals related to black Catholics. Among these are the earliest newspapers published by and for the black Catholic community. These newspapers also covered issues relating to the African American community in a broader sense. According to Cyprian Davis, author of The History of Black Catholics in the United States, the black Catholic laity emerged as a cohesive and influential force during the last couple decades of the 19th century. In November 1889, a n ..read more

A major part of the American Catholic Historical Society’s collection housed at PAHRC is its collection of Catholic newspapers. This collection contains Catholic newspapers, mostly from the early 19th to the early 20th centuries, that were published throughout the United States, as well as some foreign newspapers.   One of these periodicals is The Journal, a weekly Philadelphia newspaper published in 1892. The paper was created by black Catholics for the African American Catholic community. PAHRC has several issues of the paper.   July 9, 1892 issue Black Cath ..read more