It was more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln – which declared that enslaved people in the South were “free, and henceforward shall be free” – that the news finally reached Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865.
The day is celebrated as “Juneteenth” by many in the African American community. In 2021, it became a federal holiday. On June 19, Catholics throughout our diocese gathered to mark the occasion through the lens of Catholic social teaching.
“Juneteenth is about human dignity,” said Cathy Woodson, a member of the Virginia Catholics for Racial Justice (VCRJ) Leadership Council and a parishioner of St. Elizabeth, Richmond. “As Catholics, we are called to lift up humanity and remember that we are all God’s creatures.”
In our diocese, there were celebrations in Richmond and Norfolk that touched on that broad theme, as well as personal memories of Black Catholic history.
In Richmond, VCRJ hosted a prayer service at St. Joseph’s Memorial Park, the site of the historically Black St. Joseph parish in Jackson Ward, which was shuttered in 1969 in an effort to integrate parishes in Richmond. The park is adjacent to the site of the Van de Vyver School, a school for Black students run by Franciscan nuns, also closed during integration.
In the Tidewater region, activities at the Basilica of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Norfolk, included a potluck meal, a puppet show for children by guest speaker Darlene Green, and Mass celebrated by Father Jim Curran. The basilica is our nation’s only basilica with an historically Black congregation.
“In our world today, there is still slavery. It tends to be referred to as human trafficking, which is exactly what it was all those centuries ago, and what it still is,” said Deacon Chris Barrett, who serves at St. Elizabeth, as he offered a prayer at St. Joseph’s Memorial Park.
“As we gather our prayers and praises into one, we pray in a special way that we be delivered from this evil,” he said.
Black Catholic history
In addition to prayers and hymns – including “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and “Break Every Chain” – the service at St. Joseph’s Memorial Park featured fond memories of the school and the parish.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked from First [Street] and Duval [Street] to First and Jackson, where the church grounds were,” said Evelyn Welch, now a parishioner at Holy Rosary, Richmond.
“When my parents dropped me off, we’d be on the playground, making noise and laughing,” she continued. “When the first bell rang, everyone knew to get in line according to their class. When the second bell rang, you couldn’t hear a peep.”
Welch, from a Baptist family, learned about Catholicism from the Baltimore Catechism. When she was in fifth grade, she chose to join the Catholic faith.
“My parents had to drill me on the questions I had to answer, so they were learning about the Catholic faith while I was learning,” said Welch. Eventually, her parents became Catholic, too.
“I can still visualize the church. It was so beautiful – it had a brick edifice, it was Gothic style, and once you walked in, the first thing you’d notice was the beautiful main altar made of marble,” she said. “When the sun would shine through the stained-glass windows, it was just so beautiful.”
Karen Carter, now a Holy Rosary parishioner, also attended Van de Vyver School at St. Joseph parish.
“I started in kindergarten here. I remember the little room, which had a wood stove to keep us warm,” she said. “You marched in, sat in your seats, and did what we’re supposed to do.”
At the time, said Carter, the Mass was still in Latin: “We didn’t understand a lot of what the priest was saying, but we knew in our hearts what he was saying.”
Sister Cora Marie Billings, of the Sisters of Mercy, then read Galatians 3:26-28: “For through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus … There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person…”
Sister Billings added, “We’re here to celebrate the resilience and the gifts of the people who have gone before us, who have enabled us and encouraged us and are walking with us, so that we will continue to follow their legacy and their heritage.”
‘Back to Scripture’
“All of this goes back to Scripture,” said Deborah Lamb, co-chair of VCRJ and a parishioner at the Basilica of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception. Lamb helped organize the event in Norfolk.
She quoted 1 Corinthians 12:25-26: “…that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.”
“That is who we are as a people – that’s what God wants us to be,” said Lamb. “Nobody is free until all of us are free.”
Next year, Lamb hopes to recruit a choir for the special Mass on Juneteenth with singers from local parishes.
“The celebration gets bigger every year, and next year is going to be even bigger,” said Lamb. “I’ve noticed that across the country.”
Christopher Lamb called the event “a living monument to strength, healing and kinship.”
“Calling on the spirit of freedom, the Basilica of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception put on a joyous event,” he said.
Father Tochi Iwuji, director of the diocesan Office for Black Catholics and pastor of Holy Rosary, concelebrated Mass at the basilica. He then returned to Richmond in time for the celebration in Jackson Ward.
Deacon Frank Nelson, who serves at Holy Rosary, closed out the service at St. Joseph’s Memorial Park with a final prayer encapsulating the sentiment of the day.
“God, we thank you for making us so wonderfully in your image. We thank you for giving us limitless capacity for intellectual, experiential, and especially moral learning,” said Deacon Nelson.
“We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors,” he added. “We pray for those ancestors … that they be a beacon for us to follow on our journey.”