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Celebrating Black Resistance with Mercy By Catherine Walsh, Features Writer

Black Resistance is the theme of Black History Month for 2023 for a profound reason: “African Americans have resisted historic and ongoing oppression, in all forms, especially the racial terrorism of lynching, racial pogroms, and police killings since our arrival upon these shores,” according to the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), which promotes the event and sets the theme each year. In honor of the event, the Sisters of Mercy share photos past and present that speak to our critical concern of racism, and our efforts to become an anti-racist community.

An emotional embrace speaks volumes between Sister Cora Marie Billings (left) and Dr. Shannen Dee Williams at Villanova University’s 2019 Commencement. Sister Cora Marie, a Villanova alumna who desegrated the Sisters of Mercy in 1956, received an honorary degree for “breaking down racial barriers in our Church” and “being an all-around freedom fighter.” (Villanova University photo)

Only 17 when she entered the Sisters of Mercy in Philadelphia on August 22, 1956, Sister Cora Marie remembers “feeling overwhelmed” by a sea of white nuns. But she was proud too. The great-granddaughter of a man enslaved by Jesuit priests at Georgetown University, Sister Cora Marie knew she was making history. Two aunts had been denied entry into the Sisters of Mercy a generation earlier because of their race.

Marching towards the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on the 55th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in 2020 are University of Detroit Mercy (UDM) students, who participated in the march during a racial justice immersion trip that also included visits to Civil Rights Movement landmarks in Montgomery and Birmingham, Alabama. During the original voting rights march on March 7, 1965, some 600 unarmed people were brutally attacked by law enforcement officers with clubs and tear gas. (Photo by Sister Erin McDonald, CSJ)

Sister of Mercy Aloysius Warnock (seated at left) took a break with other participants during the Selma to Montgomery voting rights march led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from March 21-25,1965. (Mercy Heritage Center photo.) A documentary entitled Sisters of Selma: Bearing Witness for Change recounts the story of women religious who joined the march.

“Walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge was one of the most powerful experiences of my life,” says Dalonzo Curges (right), who was then a University of Detroit Mercy (UDM) junior. “I was thinking about the people who were so badly hurt, the sacrifices they made for me to vote, why it happened. It was amazing to be in this sacred and dedicated space.” (Photo by Sister Erin McDonald, CSJ)

Sister Aloysius Warnock is second to the right of Dr. King (her name is below her face) in this scrapbook photo from the Selma march. The scrapbook belonged to the late Sister Charlene Curl, who journeyed from Detroit with Sister Aloysius (d. 1986) to join other “agitator sisters” (as the media called them) in the march. In Sister Aloysius’ account of the bus trip, she wrote, “Enroute [the driver] spoke freely [about] ‘dangerous sniper territory’ and ‘no one allowed to vote in this county.’” Sister Patricia McCann spoke about her experience at the march in a 2020 interview.

Listening to a child’s heart in this undated photo is Sister Benvinda Pereira, a nurse practitioner who recently retired after years of serving people in need in the South and the Southwest. Her dreams of becoming a doctor dashed by racist superiors, she is proud of the mobile clinics she started in Alberta, Alabama, and Biloxi, Mississippi. “I loved it,” Sister Benvinda says. “There was a need for my skills there… I felt strongly that marginalized people deserved the same quality, accessible health care as those in urban areas.” (Photo courtesy of Sister Benvinda Pereira)

New Hampshire Sisters Anita and Cephas visit a family in Walterboro, South Carolina, in this undated photo. (Mercy Heritage Center photo)
Sister Cora Marie Billings (far left) and Sister Benvinda Pereira (4th from left) attend a National Black Sisters Conference meeting. (Photo courtesy of Sister Cora Marie Billings)

Honored with Mercy Connections’ Catherine McAuley Award in 2021 for her racial, social, and environmental justice work in Burlington, Vermont, Leslie McCrorey-Wells is a former Mercy Connections board member and a restaurant owner. “I have employed young women who told me that when they saw me in this role it blew their mind,” she told the Burlington Free Press. “I’m glad that it means something to people.” (Mercy Connections photo)

Visiting the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, was one of the highlights of the University of Detroit Mercy (UDM) racial justice immersion trip. A Ku Klux Klan bombing of the church on September 15, 1963, killed four girls and led the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to send a telegram to segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace stating: “The blood of our little children is on your hands." (Photo by Sister Erin McDonald, CSJ)

Releasing doves to the heavens. This detail is part of a larger sculpture called Four Spirits, which honors the four girls who were killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing: Carole Robertson, 14 (releasing doves), Carol Denise McNair, 11 (tying sash), Addie Mae Collins, 14, and Cynthia Wesley, 14. The sculpture’s unveiling took place in 2013 on the bombing’s 50th anniversary. (Photo by Sister Erin McDonald, CSJ)

Incense in hand Sister Larretta Rivera-Williams leads a procession at Mass at a 2011 international gathering of the Sisters of Mercy. She has become known for her impassioned essays on racial justice, including a Martin Luther King Jr. Day reflection that states: “Although it often seems to me that the United States has fallen asleep, and Dr. King’s dream has been forgotten, I refuse to let this dream die for all who remain second-class citizens, myself included. Won’t you join me in reigniting Dr. King’s dream?” (Photo courtesy of Sister Larretta Rivera-Williams)

Taking joy in their African heritage are a group of Mercy High School students in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Every year the school holds an Ethnic Bazaar United in Mercy, which highlights Mercy’s diversity and unity through song, dance, poetry, prayer, food, and fashion. (Photo courtesy of Mercy High School)

Joyful emotions are shared by Sister Jacquelyn Laster and Sister Linda Werthman during Sister Jackie’s final vows ceremony in Detroit in 2006. A speech pathologist and medical billing specialist who raised three children on her own, Sister Jackie has also served as a chaplain, campus minister, and pastoral associate. In reflections following her vows ceremony, she noted: “I believe that the only hope for our world is the conversion of our hearts to one another in peace and love. I am so thankful for being called to the Sisters of Mercy and hope to further the cause of all people who wish to live with dignity.” (Mercy Heritage Center photo)

Wearing African clothing in the Nigerian tradition was a joy for Sister Jackie Laster at her vows ceremony. Upon going to an African-owned store in Michigan, she fell into a warm conversation with the saleswoman. “She was so excited for me and asked if she could come!” recalls Sister Jackie with a laugh. “She and her husband and the other Africans present were even more dressed up than I was.”

Enjoying a moment are Sister Boreta Singleton (left) and Sister Cora Marie Billings. Shortly after this photo was taken on September 18, 2022, Sister Boreta became one of the Sisters of Mercy’s newest members at her novice reception ceremony. The women met in 1982, when Sister Boreta belonged to a different religious order. She helped to lead the Sisters of Mercy’s anti-racism work before joining the order and noted in a recent interview, “One of the things I appreciate about the Sisters of Mercy is that racism is [now] one of their critical concerns.”

If you have photos to share of Mercy-inspired Black Resistance, please email them to Cathy Walsh.

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