The Colored Catholic Congress movement was a series of meetings organized by

Daniel Rudd Daniel Arthur Rudd (August 7, 1854December 3, 1933) was a Black Catholic journalist and early Civil Rights leader. He is known for starting in 1885 what has been called "the first newspaper printed by and for Black Americans", the ''Ohio Tribune ...

in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for

African-American Catholics African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

to discuss issues affecting their communities, churches, and other institutions. Part of the

Colored Conventions Movement The Colored Conventions Movement, or Black Conventions Movement, was a series of national, regional, and state conventions held irregularly during the decades preceding and following the American Civil War. The delegates who attended these convent ...

, the congresses ran from 1889 to 1894, before folding for unknown reasons.

Revival

The movement was revived in the late 20th century as the

National Black Catholic Congress The National Black Catholic Congress (NBCC) is a Black Catholic advocacy group and quinquennial conference in the United States. It is a spiritual successor to Daniel Rudd's Colored Catholic Congress movement of the late 19th and early 20th cent ...

, under the leadership of several national Black Catholic organizations and the first NBCC president, Bishop

John Ricard John Huston Ricard, S.S.J. (born February 29, 1940) is an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee in Florida from 1997 to 2011 and as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimo ...

, SSJ.{{Cite web, title=Bishop Campbell elected president of the National Black Catholic Congress, url=https://cathstan.org/news/us-world/bishop-campbell-elected-president-of-the-national-black-catholic-congress, access-date=2021-10-14, website=Catholic Standard, language=en

Notable participants

* Fr

Augustus Tolton John Augustus Tolton (April 1, 1854 – July 9, 1897), baptized Augustine Tolton, was the first Catholic priest in the United States publicly known to be Black. (The Healy brothers, who preceded him, all passed for White.) Tolton was ordaine ...

* Fr

Charles Uncles Charles Randolph Uncles, SSJ (November 8, 1859 — July 20, 1933) was an African-American Catholic priest. In 1891, he became the first such priest ordained on US soil. Two years later, he co-founded the Society of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart ...

, SSJ *

Fredrick McGhee Fredrick Lamar McGhee (October 28, 1861 – September 9, 1912) was an African-American criminal defense lawyer and civil rights activist. Born a slave in Mississippi, McGhee would become the first black attorney in Minnesota. Alongside close f ...

* William Edgar Easton * Fr John R. Slattery, SSJ

References

African-American Roman Catholicism African-American organizations Catholicism in the United States Catholic organizations established in the 19th century