Racial Justice Ministry (JPIC)

RACIAL JUSTICE MINISTRY
JUSTICE, PEACE, AND INTEGRITY OF CREATION (JPIC)

It is no secret that Immaculate Conception Catholic Church is an extremely diverse parish, blessed with parishioners from a wide variety of ethnic, national, and cultural heritages. Our parishioners speak a multitude of languages and have very different socio-economic and educational backgrounds. Yet, we share one faith in Christ and a commitment to our call of discipleship. Our Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) celebrates the beauty and goodness found in this diversity and is deeply committed to racial justice education and advocacy.

Our JPIC Racial Justice Ministry originally formed when members of our JPIC Promoting Human Dignity ministry recognized that our faith called us to greater solidarity and understanding as we sought to learn how our Catholic faith and community speaks to the social justice issues and experiences our African American brothers and sisters in Christ face in Durham. This included not only studying our faith tradition but the importance of acknowledging the impact of our country’s 400-year history of systemic injustice deeply embedded in our laws and the cultural, psychological, spiritual, economic, social, and political legacies of institutional oppression (slavery, Jim Crow, etc.).

Our JPIC Racial Justice Ministry seeks not to foster shame or guilt, but to work for justice and empowerment through healing, reconciliation, education, advocacy, and building an authentic, beloved community. We listen to the struggles and the triumphs of people right here in Durham and seek to be an advocate for change in our community and our country.

We hope you will join us! If you have any questions, please let us know.

Barbara Curran, Racial Justice Ministry Parishioner Leader

Ken Chiha, Director of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC)

JPIC RACIAL JUSTICE EDUCATION AND ADVOCACY

WE ARE ONE BODY IN THIS ONE LORD

Immaculate Conception’s Racial Justice Ministry invites you to meet with us for half an hour after the 7:45 am Mass in the Daily Chapel on the second Sunday each month for a short discussion on how each Sunday’s Scriptures inform racial harmony in the body of Christ. You are welcome to share your hopes, concerns, and ideas.

We hope to meet together to build community, listen to one another, and discuss how we can more clearly exemplify the body of Christ across all racial and other earthly divides. Please stay for this conversation.

For more information, please contact Barbara Curran at (440) 840-5511.

NOVEMBER IS BLACK CATHOLIC HISTORY MONTH

Do you know who said, “The history of Black Catholics is a history of a people who refused to be separated from the Church, even when the Church seemed to separate itself from them.”

In honor of Black Catholic History Month this November, Immaculate Conception’s Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) Racial Justice Ministry will feature informational displays in the gathering space, beginning the weekend of November 15-16th and continuing throughout the month, celebrating eminent African-American theologians and Black Americans being considered for sainthood. Please visit our displays to learn more about the rich history of Black Catholics in America.

THE SAINTLY SEVEN
African Americans on their way to Sainthood

For more information on the "Saintly Seven" and the canonization process, please click on the link below.

The Saintly Seven (Diocese of Austin)

Venerable Henriette DeLille (1813-1862)

Her mother was a free Black woman; her father was French.
She organized a group of religious women as “Sisters of the Presentation,” but the local bishop barred them from taking vows or wearing habits (1836). Black women were considered unworthy of religious life.

In 1837 the Vatican granted them recognition; in 1842 the name was changed to Sisters of the Holy Family and Henriette DeLille was the first Mother Superior.
They promoted matrimony and provided nursing care and homes to children and the elderly of the African American community. She defied the law by teaching non-whites.
She was refused by the Carmelite and Ursuline orders due to her color.
She was declared venerable by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.
A third miracle is being scrutinized at the Vatican.
She is the first native-born African American recommended for canonization.

Venerable Augustus Tolton (1854-1897)

He was born into into slavery in Missouri and escaped in 1863 to Quincy, IL.
No US seminary would accept a man of color.
In 1880 the bishop arranged for his admission to the Pontifical Urban University in Rome where he was ordained as the first black Catholic priest in 1886.
He celebrated his first public Mass at St. Peter’s on Easter 1886 and his first US Mass in Hoboken, NJ on 7/7/1886.

Vatican ordered him to return as a priest to the US where he faced fierce opposition and resentment by white Protestant ministers and priests and parishioners, in defiance of papal decree for racial equality.
He developed and constructed St. Monica’s Church in Chicago’s South Side but was driven from this integrated parish by a white Catholic priest and bishop who demanded segregation.
He was declared venerable by Pope Francis in 2019 for his life of heroic virtue.

Servant of God Julia Greeley (1833-1918)

She was born in 1833 in Hannibal, Missouri and died in Denver, Co in 1918.
She was an African American philanthropist and Catholic convert.
Julia was born in slavery and gained freedom during the Civil War. Her eye was damaged by a slave-master’s whip.
She dedicated herself to administering to the poor by cleaning and cooking; known for bringing food to the poor in her red wagon.

Julia dedicated herself to the Sacred Heart and died on the Feast of the Sacred Heart.
In 1901 she became a secular Franciscan.
Julia was known as Denver’s Angel of Charity and the Apostle of the Sacred Heart.
She was the first person to be interred in Denver’s Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in 2017 (after exhumation from Mt Olive Catholic Cemetery in Fairmount, CO).

Venerable Pierre Toussaint (1766-1853)

He was born in slavery in Haiti and gained his freedom in 1807 in NY. He took the last name from a devout Catholic and military hero of the Haitian Revolution.
In NYC he was known as the founder of NYC Catholic Charities.
Pierre was a hairdresser/barber.

He and his wife Juliette fostered children and dedicated their incomes to supporting orphans, refugees, the unemployed, and migrants.
He was instrumental in the construction of old St. Patrick’s Cathedral but, as a black man, could not attend services there.
He was buried as the only lay person in old St. Patrick’s crypt.
He was declared venerable by St Pope John Paul II in 1996.

Servant of God Mary Lange (1784-1882)

She was born in Haiti and emigrated to Cuba.
Her mother was the daughter of a Jewish plantation owner, and her father was a mulatto slave.
She founded the first congregation of black Catholic sisters (Oblate Sisters of Providence) in Baltimore.

She was the first black Catholic Mother Superior of a religious congregation.
She committed to the education of black children and women and established homes for the care of widows and orphans.
She cared for the ill in the city during the cholera epidemic in 1832.

Servant of God Thea Bowman (1937-1990)

She was born in MS during the Jim Crow era.
She was an advocate for black culture and the strengths of the black Christian spiritual tradition.
She converted from Methodism through the influence of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration - “putting faith into action.”
As a Catholic intellectual and educator, she received a PhD from Catholic University of America and became the co-founder of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana.

She composed songs for a Catholic hymnal in the African American tradition.
In 1989 while wheelchair bound, she addressed the USCCB to urge for inclusivity and full participation of blacks in church leadership.
She fought to be fully black and fully Catholic.

Servant of God Friar Martin Maria de Porres Ward (1928-1999)

He was born In Boston, Massachusetts to a bi-racial family.
One of twelve children, he converted from Methodism and was ordained a priest on June 4, 1955.
Since most of the Catholic bishops in the US refused to allow Black priests to serve in their dioceses, he dedicated 51 years of his life to the Conventual Franciscan Friars. He was the first African American Conventual Franciscan in North America.

Most of his years as a Franciscan Friar were spent in Brazil where he devoted himself to care of the poor. He was also an educator, pastor, chaplain and spiritual director.
His commitment to his faith was reflected in his practice of the virtues of joy, poverty and humility, as well as his profound devotion to the Eucharist.
His gravesite at the former São Francisco de Assis Seminary in that city has become a place of pilgrimage and the site of two reputed miracles as of 2022.

PROMINENT BLACK CATHOLIC THEOLOGIANS

Servant of God Thea Bowman
December 29, 1937 – March 30, 1990

In 2018, declared a Servant of God, by her home Diocese of Jackson, MS - the first stage to apply for canonization as a Saint in the Church.

Even without academic theological publications, Sister Thea Bowman’s work has had lasting influence on Black Catholic theology, pastoral ministry, and the Catholic understanding of cultural diversity.

Bowman advocated that:

African American culture—its music, preaching, movement, and communal spirit—is a valid and beautiful expression of Catholic faith.
Joy, song, and community are acts of resistance and faith, rooted in suffering and hope, and reflected in mutual belonging and shared responsibility.
The Church must confront racism, truly reflecting the universality of God’s people.

An advocate for faith and justice, with a way of encouraging people out of their comfort zones.

A passionate educator and lover of music.

Composed songs for a Catholic hymnal and compiled “Lead Me, Guide Me” a widely used hymnal that includes popular African American Hymns.

She frequently challenged the Church to break down racial and cultural barriers, and to encourage African Americans to be fully black and fully Catholic.

Her public speaking and music expressed deep theological insights about God’s presence in everyday Black life.

“I bring myself, my Black self, all that I am, all that I have, all that I hope to become. I bring my whole history, my traditions, my experience—my culture—and I bring it all to the Church.”

M (Mary) Shawn Copeland
August 24, 1947 -

“The scandal of the cross is that it exposes the evil of suffering and the suffering of evil — and calls us to stand with those who suffer.”

Became a Felician sister and taught in high school. She felt pressure from within her order when she protested the Archdiocese of Detroit’s closure of Black Catholic schools & transferred to the Adrian Dominican Sisters in 1971. She left religious life in 1994.

Worked with National Black Sisters Conference and Theology in the Americas, a group formed to explore the meaning of liberation theology for North America.

In 2003, she became the first African American woman and the first African American elected President of the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA).

Copeland’s Contributions in Theology:

The human body is sacred, especially in the context of suffering, marginalization, and racial injustice in the lived experiences of Black women.
Womanist perspectives (the theological reflections of Black women) challenge sexism and racism within the Church.
The “Mystical Body of Christ” includes solidarity with the poor, oppressed, and excluded. Communion with Christ necessarily demands social justice.

Grew up in Detroit, MI, attending parochial schools.

In 1969 earned a BA in English from Madonna College.

Studied with Bernard Lonergan at Boston College where she completed a Ph.D. in systematic theology in 1991.

She is Professor Emerita of systematic theology at Boston College with specialization in theological anthropology, political theology and African American Catholicism. Also held positions at Xavier University of Louisiana, Yale Divinity School, St. Norbert, Harvard, Marquette, and Candler School of Theology at Emory University.

Her work centers on experiences of people subjected to oppression, violence and injustice.

In 2017 a lecture at Madonna College was cancelled after conservative Catholic media outlets criticized her stance on LGBT issues, which at times conflicted with official Church teachings.

Father Cyprian Davis OSB
September 9, 1930 - May 18, 2015

His groundbreaking 1990 work, The History of Black Catholics in the United States, is an extensive study and a definitive history of American Black Catholics from the early Spanish explorations to 1970.

A founding member of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, which emerged shortly after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. This group called on the Catholic Church to confront racism and affirm Black identity in theology and ministry.

As a theologian, Father Davis emphasized:

The spiritual and theological dignity of Black Catholics within the universal Church.
The need to recognize and integrate African American culture and experience into Catholic theology, worship, and leadership.
The concept of the Church as a reconciled and inclusive community, reflecting both diversity and unity.

Studied for his vocation as a monk at Saint Meinrad Seminary in Indiana from 1949 to 1956 and was ordained to the priesthood on May 3, 1956.

Author of six books, many articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia and dictionary entries.

Wrote a biography of Mother Henrietta DeLille, who, in the pre-Civil War Era founded the Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans.

Contributed to the drafts of USCCB publications Brothers and Sisters to Us, a pastoral letter on racism in 1979 and What We Have Seen and Heard on evangelization from the Black Catholic bishops, in 1984.

"The history of Black Catholics is a history of a people who refused to be separated from the Church, even when the Church seemed to separate itself from them.”

Diana Lynn Hayes
May 30, 1947 -

“Faith is not a private possession; it is a communal reality that must be lived out in the struggle for freedom.”

“To be Black and Catholic is to live at the intersection of two rich traditions that too often have failed to see one another.”

Former attorney, converted to Catholicism at the age of 33. Became interested in Liberation Theologies, especially Black Liberation Theology, which was beginning to be recognized.

Hayes’ theological emphasis:

Integration of Black and Catholic theology — Hayes brings together the Catholic theological tradition and the lived experience of Black Americans, emphasizing the dignity, faith, and struggles of African Americans within the Church.
Womanist perspective — She explores how faith and theology are shaped by the experiences of Black women, addressing race, gender, and class together.
Focus on liberation and justice — Like many liberation theologians, she insists that theology must respond to oppression and injustice, rooted in the Gospel’s call to freedom and community.

Earned a Bachelor of Arts and Licentiate in sacred theology at Catholic University; her dissertation was on the theology of James Cone, an African American Methodist theologian, who was a great mentor to her.

1st African American woman to earn a Pontifical Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.T.D.) In addition, she holds Juris Doctor (law) and Doctor of Philosophy (Religious Studies) degrees as well as 3 honorary doctorates.

Emerita Professor of Systematic Theology at Georgetown University.

Dr. Hayes has published over 75 articles and is the author/editor of 9 books, most recently No Crystal Stair: Womanist Spirituality (Orbis, 2016).

Father Bryan N. Massingale
1957 -

Massingale has challenged the Catholic Church’s treatment of LGBT people, dedicating much of his professional career to calling out the Church’s homophobia.

Author of Racial Justice and the Catholic Church (2010), which examines how racism has shaped U.S. Catholicism and offers a path toward healing and conversion grounded in Catholic moral theology and the Black freedom tradition.

Also contributed to The Scandal of White Complicity in U.S. Hyper-Incarceration: A Nonviolent Spirituality of White Resistance (2013), which explores the moral responsibility of white Christians in the face of racialized mass incarceration.

Fr. Massingale’s Theological Ideas:

Racism is not only a social sin but also a profound theological and ecclesial issue that distorts Christian faith.
The Black Catholic experience reveals both the beauty and the struggle of faith within a church that has often failed to address racial injustice.
Authentic Christian love and justice demand full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons in both church and society

Massingale was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1957 to Catholic parents. Both were devoted to pre-Vatican II Catholicism, referring to traditionalist practices like the Latin Mass.

From 1979 to 1983, Massingale attended Saint Francis Seminary in Milwaukee, where he was the only African American student.

In 2018, New Ways Ministry asked Massingale to serve as the director for their annual retreat for gay priests, brothers, and deacons. Milwaukee’s Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki denounced the event as “not in line with Catholic Church teaching.” Local militias sent death threats to Massingale and the Catholic sisters who were hosting the event at the Sienna Retreat Center, the latter eventually hiring 24-hour security. More than twenty protestors, mostly lay Catholics, showed up at the October 2018 retreat.

“My whole ministry, in some way, has been to help the Church catch up to God, to help the Church understand that God has already gifted people of color with dignity and value and worth, and God has already gifted LGBT people with dignity, value, and worth.”

Sister Jamie T. Phelps, OP
1941 -

“The Catholic Church is truly universal only when it embraces the many cultures, colors, and histories of its people, seeing in each the image of God.”

A charter member of two important organizations in the field, the Institute for Black Catholic Studies and the Black Catholic Theological Symposium.

Best known for her work demonstrating how race, culture and faith intersect in the lives of African Americans.

Sr Jamie’s theology:

Integrates liberation theology with Catholic social teaching, focusing on how faith calls the Church to confront racism and promote justice and inclusion.
Asserts that the universality of the Church includes the particularity of every culture. Theology must begin from the lived experience of marginalized peoples.
Maintains that the goal of theology is communion in diversity, not assimilation.

Born in 1941 in Alabama, USA. Entered the Adrian Dominican Sisters in 1959 and earned her Ph.D. in systematic theology from The Catholic University of America.

From her baptism to her early call to service and ministry, her life story helps us understand how persistence, tenacity and the wisdom and strength of forming support networks help others navigate even the most stubborn obstacles.

Taught Systematic Theology at CTU, Xavier University, Loyola University in Chicago and other Catholic graduate schools. She has mentored a generation of Black Catholic theologians and ministers, helping shape the field’s academic and pastoral dimensions.

Shannen Dee Williams
1982 -

Author of Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle, which uncovers the hidden history of Black Catholic women religious who fought racism both in the Church and in American society.

Her teaching and research specialties focus on the 19th and 20th centuries, Black women's history, Black freedom struggles, and the Black Catholic experience.

Her scholarship has had a major impact on Catholic theology, particularly in the areas of racial justice, the Black Catholic experience, and the Church’s complicity in racism.

Williams’ Theological impact:

Ecclesiology (the study of the Church): She exposes how racism has shaped Catholic institutions and challenges the Church to live up to its universal mission.
Liberation and womanist theology: Her research uplifts the voices of Black Catholic women as agents of faith, resistance, and renewal.
Moral theology and justice: Williams’ scholarship demands a reckoning with the Church’s moral responsibility in perpetuating racial exclusion.

Dr. Williams holds a B.A. in history and graduated Magna Cum Laude with Phi Beta Kappa honors from Agnes Scott College.

She has a Masters in Afro American Studies from University of Wisconsin in Madison and a Doctorate in History from Rutgers University.

She is an associate professor of history (most recently at the University of Dayton) and a sought-after public speaker in Catholic and theological circles, where she bridges historical scholarship and faith-based justice work.

The first Black woman elected to the Executive Council of the American Catholic Historical Association.

Cofounder of Fleming-Morrow Endowment in African American History at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Helped establish the Mother Mary Lange lecture in Black Catholic History at Villanova University.

“No person has ever been simply Catholic, and any attempt to discuss or frame Catholicism without acknowledging the great diversity of the Catholic faithful or the intersection of people’s identities is woefully inadequate and perhaps even intentionally insincere.”

"True community is based upon equality, mutuality and reciprocity. It affirms the richness of individual diversity as well as the common human ties that bind us together."

THE REVEREND DR. PAULI MURRAY
Durham’s Own Civil Rights Activist

Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray was the first female African-American, Episcopal priest.
Most Americans know about Rosa Parks, and well they should. Yet, Murray was arrested and jailed in March 1940 for refusing to sit at the back of a bus in Virginia, and was an activist in lunch counter sit-ins in Washington D.C. while studying at Howard University.
Pauli Murray graduated with distinction from Hillside High School in Durham, was first in her class at Howard University School of Law, and the first African-American to earn a Doctorate in Law from Yale. Although Murray earned three different law degrees, she was never welcomed to work as a lawyer because she was a black woman.

Pauli Murray Center for History & Social Justice (Web Page Link)

She advised Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, when he was a young lawyer for the NAACP, on the Brown V Board of Education case, which successfully overturned segregation in public schools.
Murray was a friend and advisor to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
In 1950 she published States’ Laws on Race and Color, which Justice Marshall called “the Bible for civil rights lawyers.”
Reverend Dr. Murray was also a founding member of NOW, the National Organization for Women.
Born in Baltimore Maryland in 1910, Pauli was raised here in Durham, living mostly with her aunt and her grandfather's family on Carroll Avenue, which is now the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice.
An interesting local note: Pauli's grandfather, Mr. Fitzgerald, a former slave, was a brick maker. When slavery ended, he built a reputable business and many of the old buildings here in Durham were built with his good, red bricks.
Pauli Murray is an excellent writer and poet. If you want a fascinating, personal and historical read about Durham itself and how life was for Black people in the mid-1900s, find Proud Shoes, at your local independent bookstore. Song in a Weary Throat is another stellar book by Pauli Murray.
Pauli Murray was quietly devoted, until the end of her life, to another woman.

*JPIC/IC Anti-Racism Statement

Ken Chiha, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church's Director of Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation (JPIC), encourages active discipleship in response to racist hate crimes and mass shootings.

JPIC Book Studies
(Promoting Human Dignity)

Durham Racial Equity Task Force Report

HONORING JUNETEENTH

In the gathering space after masses on the weekend of June 13-14th, Immaculate Conception’s JPIC Racial Justice Ministry will be displaying information in honor of Juneteenth. Juneteenth, or June 19th, marks the end of chattel slavery in the United States.

From 1619, when the first enslaved people came to Jamestown VA, until June 19, 1865, slavery was legally practiced in parts of the United States. Chattel slavery meant the enslaved person was considered the “property” of the slave owner and had no rights. This holiday is important for all Americans, regardless of their race and ethnicity. It reminds us that all people, being created in the image and likeness of God, have an inherent dignity. It also reminds us that we still have a long way to go in recognizing this dignity.

Please stop by the Gathering Space this weekend to learn about Juneteenth, some current issues of racial justice, Catholic social teaching, and about the seven African Americans being considered for Sainthood. We look forward to speaking with you.

33 Juneteenth Celebrations in the Triangle (Link)

Why is Juneteenth an important day for all Americans?

It marks the end of chattel slavery in the United States. Since 1619, when the first enslaved people came to Jamestown VA, to June 19, 1865, slavery was legally practiced in parts of the United States. Chattel slavery meant the enslaved person was considered the “property” of the slave owner and had no rights of citizenship. Enslaved people could be bought or sold at the whim of the owner.

The 1860 United States census shows there were roughly 4 million enslaved African Americans, which was about 13% of the total US population. There were also a small number of “white slaves.”
The Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863 “freed” enslaved people as the Union Army accepted the surrender of the units of the Confederate Army.

June 19, 1865, celebrates the freeing of all enslaved people in the United States. They were now free to make their own decisions about where to live, what their occupation could be, who to marry, what to eat, and own their own possessions like land, a house, cattle, furniture. They could be a family unit without the fear of the family unit being broken up.
For America, June 19, 1865, means the “freeing” of the minds and talents of the enslaved people to help build the America we know today.

How did June 19, 1865, become the day to end slavery in the United States?

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, and declared “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are and henceforward shall be free.” The reality of the freedom it promised depended on a Union victory.

April 9, 1865: Confederate General Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Grant at Appomattox Court House, VA. This started the “freeing of enslaved people” in Virginia.
April 26, 1865: Confederate General Johnston surrenders the Army of Tennessee and the Southeastern Department of the Confederacy to Union General Sherman at Durham, NC (Bennett Place). Now enslaved people in southern Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee were “free.”
May 10, 1865: Confederate General Jones surrenders the Confederate Departments of South Carolina, Florida, and South Georgia to Union General McCook at Tallahassee, FL. More slaves were now “free.”
May 26, 1865: Confederate General Smith surrenders the Trans-Mississippi Department of the Confederacy to Union General Canby at Shreveport, LA.
Finally, on June 19, 1865, in Galveston, Texas, Union General Gordon Granger signs and issues General Order No. 3 freeing the last slaves in the US who were primarily west of the Mississippi River.

What happened after June 19, 1865?

December 6, 1865: The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified. This amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States, except as punishment for a crime.
1868: The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution was passed establishing citizenship for all people born in the United States. It also required due process of law and equal protection under the law.
1870: The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution was passed prohibiting discrimination in voting rights based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. In 1870, only men had the right to vote.

HOUSING
From The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein

In the 1900s, many towns across the US adopted laws forbidding African Americans from being within town borders after dark.
In the 1920s, zoning ordinances prevented African American families from living in middle class white neighborhoods.

AND

Only African American neighborhoods were zoned to permit taverns, liquor stores, and nightclubs.
The Code of Ethics of the National Association of Real Estate Boards read “A realtor should not…introduce into a neighborhood, members of any race or nationality whose presence will clearly be detrimental to the property values in the neighborhood.” It further warned brokers to be on guard against “a colored man of means who was giving his children a college education and thought they were entitled to live among whites."
During PWA projects (Public Work Administration), when integrated neighborhoods were leveled or relocated, they were replaced with “white only” neighborhoods.
Until WWII, wardens sometimes sold prisoners to plantations, mines, and factories to work as unpaid labor.
In the 1940s, labor unions would not allow promotion of African Americans if it involved them supervising whites (leading to income suppression).
FDR’s Fair Labor Standards Act prohibited child labor and established minimum wages EXCEPT in industries in which African Americans predominated, like agriculture.
Veterans Administration (VA) rejected applications by African American WWII veterans for government guaranteed mortgages on the basis of race.
The GI bill denied African Americans mortgage subsidies AND restricted education and training benefits to lower level jobs.
Federal Housing Authority (FHA) would not insure mortgages to whites in neighborhoods where African Americans were present (discouraging integration).
Church leaders (priests, pastors, rabbis) organized to prevent African Americans from living in white neighborhoods in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Buffalo, Detroit, and Chicago.
Neighbors of a homeowner
- could sue the seller of a home if they violated racial covenants
- AND could obtain a court order to evict purchaser
- AND could sue both buyer and seller for engaging in conspiracy to decrease community property values.
Since African Americans could not qualify for mortgages under FHA and bank policies, some bought homes under expensive “installment” plans where no equity was accumulated, and a missed payment could result in eviction.
In 2008, excessive marketing of exploitative loans to the African American community was “reverse redlining”. These subprime loans were designed for those at high risk of default and charged higher interest rates, higher closing costs, prepayment penalties and ballooning interest rates.

Justice delayed is justice denied.

MASS INCARCERATION
From The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

One-third (33%) of Black men have a felony conviction. This is much higher than the overall U.S. adult population, where about 8% have a felony record.
The United States has a staggering 2.3 million people in prison - a higher rate of incarceration than any country in the world - but it also has another 4.5 million people under state control outside of prisons, on probation or parole. More than 70 million Americans, over 20% of the entire US population - largely poor and people of color - now have criminal records. The overwhelming majority of persons sentenced to prisons and jails, as well as those placed on probation or parole, have been convicted of nonviolent crimes, especially drug offenses.
The War on Drugs, launched in the 1980s, targeted urban Black communities despite data showing that drug use was equally prevalent among whites. About half a million people were in prison or jail for a drug offense in 2010, compared to an estimated 41,100 in 1980 - an increase of 1,100 percent.
The War on Drugs focused not on dealers or drug cartels, but on crack cocaine, which was mainly used by poor and Black communities. Little attention was paid to powder cocaine, which was used in the more well-to-do suburbs. Until recently, possessing crack cocaine resulted in much harsher sentences than powder cocaine, even though they are chemically similar.
Once one has been convicted - or even accused - of a crime, a person enters a large system of racial stigmatization and permanent marginalization. A convicted felon, no matter what the crime or at what age it was committed, may be, for the rest of his/her life: Denied the right to vote, denied the right to sit on a jury, denied funds for higher education, subject to legal discrimination in employment, and denied access to public housing.
Racial and class segregation can be maintained digitally in the United States, via remote control, with impoverished communities of color confined to their neighborhoods by electronic monitors that alert the police when people step outside their designated zones. And a person can be charged up to $300 a month for the electronic monitoring device.
Prosecutors have wide discretion in charging decisions and often charge Black defendants more harshly than white defendants for similar crimes. Judges make decisions about who should be held in jail and who should be set “free” based on a computer algorithm. African Americans receive significantly longer sentences than whites for the same offenses, especially in drug-related and federal offenses.
The Federal Government gives money and equipment to local police forces based on the number of people they arrest for drug related crimes. These grants explicitly reward aggressive drug enforcement, regardless of the seriousness of the offense or the outcome of the case. Police agencies have been financially motivated to prioritize drug enforcement over more serious or violent crimes.
Police can seize property (cars, cash, homes) suspected of being connected to drug crimes — even if the owner is never convicted. The seized assets often go directly to police department budgets. This has created a profit motive for drug raids, especially targeting people who lack the resources to fight back.
Police disproportionately stop and search Black and Latino drivers without reasonable suspicion. These practices often lead to arrests even when no contraband is found. Officers and departments are evaluated, promoted, and funded based on numbers of arrests — not justice outcomes. This incentivizes mass arrests of low-level offenders, particularly in poor Black and Latino neighborhoods where police can make quick busts with minimal resistance.
Police departments that demonstrate aggressive drug enforcement qualify for military-grade equipment from federal programs. Departments with high arrest numbers or active participation in drug task forces are prioritized for armored vehicles, assault weapons, and surveillance tools. These tools further encourage military-style raids and aggressive tactics, often in Black communities.
Once departments become dependent on these funds, there is ongoing pressure to maintain or increase drug arrest rates. Even in periods when drug use declines or becomes less visible, police are incentivized to continue the war, leading to pretextual stops, racial profiling, and expanded surveillance. Drug war grants reward the sheer volume of drug arrests, regardless of whether they have any impact on the drug trade.
During the financial crisis of 2008 and the related scandals, employees at banks committed crimes including lying to investigators and regulators, fraudulently portraying junk assets as valuable assets, rate-rigging, bribing foreign officials, submitting false documents, mortgage fraud, fraudulent home foreclosures, financing drug cartels, orchestrating and enabling wide-spread tax evasion and violating international sanctions. By the end of the crisis, African Americans lost over half of their wealth. Eventually some banks paid fines, but not a single individual was charged with a crime.

JPIC PHD LENTEN BOOK STUDY GROUP
VISITS HISTORIC STAGVILLE PLANATATION

Many of our Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) Promoting Human Dignity Book Studies have focused on issues of racial justice, with some including optional follow up events. Following our Lenten Book Study of "The Cross and The Lynching Tree," a group of parishioners visited Stagville, a state historic site that includes the remnants of the one of the largest plantations in North Carolina.

Over 900 people were once enslaved on this property. According to their website, "Stagville protects a fraction of the land from that plantation, including original slave quarters (1851), a massive barn (1860), and a Bennehan family house (1787-1799). Stagville is dedicated to teaching about the lives and work of enslaved people on the plantation."

Our parishioners found it to be a very profound and moving experience. If you would like to learn more or visit Historic Stagville, please click this link.

RACIST ROOTS SCREENINGS AND PANEL DISCUSSIONS

Parishioners have taken part in, and our Immaculate Conception's JPIC has hosted, screenings and panel discussions of the film Racist Roots. Racist Roots is a powerful 25-minute film that reveals North Carolina death penalty’s deep entanglement with slavery, lynching, and racism.

Panelists have included Andre Smith, who lost his son to homicide, and Jerome Bell, who serves on the Board of Directors for Fayetteville PACT. Nick Courmon also performed spoken word poetry and moderated the panel discussion following the film. The evenings conclude with a call to action to write Govenor Cooper asking him to commute all death sentences. Racist Roots is a project of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation.

RACIAL JUSTICE COMMUNITY EVENTS

BLACK HISTORY MONTH
CELEBRATING OUR FAITH TOGETHER AS A BELOVED COMMUNITY

Historically rooted in the 1920s and more formally/widely recognized in the 1970s through presidential statements like Gerald Ford’s declaration that Black History Month is an occasion to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history” (1976 Bicentennial Year Message), the United States has celebrated Black History Month every February. American Catholics also celebrate Black Catholic History Month every November.

In addition to our Immaculate Conception and Immaculata’s celebration of Black History Month, every year our JPIC lists some events that our Franciscan friars and parishioners share with us that will help our parish celebrate Black History Month in conversation with our greater Durham community.

2026 Black History Month events will be added when available

USCCB STATEMENT IN OBSERVANCE OF REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY 2024
Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, President
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)

In observance of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has issued a statement:

On Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day we pause and reflect on Rev. King’s indelible legacy, and his rallying cry in the pursuit of justice and peace.

As Rev. King taught us, we must confront the evils of racism and prejudice with the love of Christ: ‘Deeply etched in the fiber of our religious tradition is the conviction that men are made in the image of God . . . the heirs of a legacy of dignity and worth. . .. This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all men.’

Each of us can and must work for justice and peace, remembering Rev. King’s call to action: ‘Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’

Martin Luther King, Jr., was a champion of civil rights. Dr. King used the Word of God to effect change of hearts and minds. Given the issues of migration, antisemitism and racial and religious discrimination touching our communities, we are reminded that the work of bringing people together in mutual recognition and cooperation is never really done. There remain forces in the human condition that would tear asunder what has been accomplished. Let us remain vigilant to take advantage of positive signs existing in evangelization efforts and continued civic progress within human relations. These things help shape communities that manifest the affirmative outcomes arising from our varied races, ethnicities, and cultural backgrounds. The Catholic Church is committed to this endeavor and willingly clasps hands and hearts with all others of like mind, faith, and hope.

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If you have questions regarding our various JPIC ministries, please contact:
Kennith M. Chiha, Director of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC)
Immaculate Conception Catholic Church - 901-A West Chapel Hill Street, Durham, NC 27701
(919) 682-3449 Ext. 293 - [email protected]

RACIAL JUSTICE MINISTRYJUSTICE, PEACE, AND INTEGRITY OF CREATION (JPIC)