A COLORED PRIEST
Visit To Louisville
of the Rev. Father Tolton, of Chicago.
Entertained At a
Banquet Last Night Attended by Eighteen White Priests.
One of the two colored Catholic priests in the United States
is in the city, and was entertained at a banquet last- night attended by
eighteen priests of this city and vicinity. The priest is Father Tolton, of Chicago, pastor of a church there. The
banquet was given in the schoolroom of St. Augustine’s church, at Fourteenth
and Broadway, and was attended by about 400 of the communicants of the church,
Father Colleton, of Raywick, made a welcome address. St. Peter’s Aid and
Beneficial Society presented Father Tolton with a purse of $25. Father Tolton
responded eloquently to this, and in the course of his remarks spoke of the
progress of the colored people since the days of slavery.
Father Rock, of the Cathedral, also made remarks, assuring
Father Tolton that; had the priests of the
city known of his visit to Louisville more would have been present. He said
that in the Roman Catholic Church 'there was no color line, and that all
priests are equal.' Father John R. White, pastor of St. Augustine’s, is about to
leave for Baltimore, and each speaker referred to him and the good work he has
done while here.
On either side of Father Tolton at the table sat Prof- W. T Peyton and wife and William Watson and wife. Among the priests present were Fathers Rock, Raifo, White, Culletun, Higgins and Harrison. The banquet was arranged by Andrew Bells, Mrs. J. J. Payne and a number of other enthusiastic members of the congregation.
A. J. Bells and his music class gave a piano recital to
Father Tolton, at 1915 Grayson Street, yesterday afternoon. Lydia Johnson made
a welcome address and presented the colored priest with a handsome “Life of
Columbus." The wife of Dr. E.S. Porter rendered a fine vocal solo.
Father Tolton is building a fine church in Chicago, to which city he will probably return tonight. He preached two eloquent sermons in St. Augustine’s church last Sunday. He is about thirty years of age and has a bright future. He completed his education in Rome, where he was ordained. He has been a priest six years.
A “NEGRO’S” VIEWS
Talk With a Sensible Man Who Wants No Euphemistic Title
Religion and Education Regarded as the Afro-American's Means of Advancement
His Trip Through the South Proves a Pleasant Surprise and He Finds Nothing Ill to Say
Catholics and the Colored Race
“You want me to tell you something about Afro-American Catholics. Very well. But first let me request that in your article you refer to me as a “negro,” not a “colored man,” said Father Tolton, the first Afro-American to be ordained into the priesthood. “Yes,” laughingly continued the priest, “I’m a negro, a wooly-headed n-e-g-r-o see?” and spelling out the word he inclined his head forward and jerked at the hair with his fingers to impress what he had said. “No, don’t call me a “colored man.” It is all affectation when a negro wants to be called colored. The Almighty didn’t color him with dye. Negro is the word. Not ‘----;’ that’s worse than “colored’.” When the reporter had assured Father Tolton that his request would be granted, he proceeded to talk about his own race and its connection with Catholicism.
He has the distinction of being the only member of his race in this country who is pastor of a Catholic negro congregation. There is only one other negro priest in the United States, Father Uncles of Baltimore, but he is now a teacher in a Catholic college. Besides, Father Tolton was the first to be ordained. The ordination ceremony was performed on April 24, 1886 at St. John Lateran’s church in Rome, Italy. Father Tolton had been there six years. He took a two years’ course in philosophy and a four years’ course in theology. He was ordained by Cardinal Parocchi and he celebrated his first mass in St. Peter’s church at the Vatican on Easter Sunday.
Father Tolton is an unusually sensible man. While he is a strong champion of his race, he does not believe in shielding their errors, but rather in frankly in confessing them in the hope that it will be fruitful of good results. He came here to look up his family history, for his mother and grandparents were slaves on a Kentucky plantation. He related a part of it to the reporter. His mother belonged to Stephen Burch, of Meade County. She was afterwards given as a present to Stephen Elliot of Ralls County, Mo. His father was a convert to the Catholic faith. Father Tolton was baptized by Father LeFevre, the first priest of Chicago, riding into that city on horseback, there being no train; the first priest of Quincy, Ill., and afterwards Bishop of Detroit.
He was born in April 1854, the same year that a negro priest who had been ordained at Cork was sent to this country, but was compelled to return at once, not finding things pleasant on account of slavery. After returning from Rome Father Tolton went to Quincy, Ill., where he was made pastor of St. Joseph’s congregation. He became pastor of a congregation in Chicago in 1889.
In speaking of negro Catholics, he said that there were fully 200,000 in the United States. “Without meaning to be egotistical, I believe that the negroes who are members of the Catholic Church represent the most intelligent class of our race in this country. In numbers they are well advanced, but in organization the African-American Catholics are in their infancy. Even now there are comparatively few Catholic congregations where the negro can assert himself. They attend services at the white churches and are cordially received (no complaint on that point), but they have little to do with the church organization. Of course, in their present state of their growth we can expect nothing else, but the time is approaching when they will be self-assertive: they will have congregations and churches of their own, negro priests to conduct the services and, in fact, have organizations like the white Catholics. In the south, I find many negro Catholics, but they are scattered and their work is consequently not effective. Being the only negro priest in this country actually in charge of a congregation, I am feeling rather lonesome and will welcome the time when there will be scores of us.
To change the subject from religion for a moment, I want to tell you of my impression of negro education in the South. Recently, I made an extended visit through that portion of the country and studied the question from as unbiased a standpoint as a man of my race could. I found that the Southern negroes had facilities for common school education far beyond my expectations. The buildings were generally good, and the teachers were fairly well equipped for work. The attendance was large at each school, but I believe there are not enough schools to accommodate all. So far as a common school education is concerned, I say they are fairly well provided for, but if a negro in the South wants a higher education, he cannot get it there. But I think times are rapidly changing for the better in that respect. Another thing I want to admit. I did not find the enormous amount of prejudice against the negro that I expected. I was treated well by the Southern white people, and, remember no incident of which I could complain.
How many people of your own city know
that right here at Fourteenth and Broadway is a negro Catholic congregation
perhaps larger than any Louisville church, of whatever race, can boast. They
number between 2,000 and 3,000. They have a white priest, Father White, for a
pastor, but in all other respects it is entirely under the charge of negro
members. It is an encouraging sign for our race. They are above the average of
many other cities in intelligence and general conduct. The people of our race
in this city have as fine a system of schools as I have seen anywhere and they should
be proud of it. I fear all of them do not fully realize what advantages they
have here in this respect. I do not
think it will be long before the negro Catholics of Louisville will have a
priest of their own.
FIRST OF HIS RACE.
Sketch of Father Augustus Tolton, the Only Negro Priest Sent from Rome.
Personal Gossip and Matters of
Interest About the Colored People of Louisville.
The Rev. Father Augustus Tolton, who filled the pulpit of the
St. Augustine church, of this city a short while ago, is the first and only
negro priest ever sent from the church of Rome to this country. He is of pure
African descent, and his ordination created a sensation. He was born a slave in Ralls County, Mo., April 1, 1854. His lot was that of other persons in bondage.
When the war broke out his father joined the Union army, and died in a hospital
at St. Louis from the effect of wounds received on the field. His mother,
Martha Jane Tolton, was a Kentuckian, and a woman of great daring, and after
her husband had enlisted in the army, she made her escape from slavery,
locating at Quincy, Ill. She carried her young Tolton and her only daughter,
nine years old.
Young Tolton early life was a continual warfare with
privation, bitter disappointments and abject poverty. When he was seven years
of age, he was sent to a tobacco factory to work, and followed this for twelve
years. In 1872 the work proved too much for him, and he was compelled to look
about for another occupation. He- secured a place as porter in a store, and
after working all day he would sit up half the night studying and reading. In
his nineteenth year he was entered as a student at St. Boniface school, an
institution for white people, and while there made surprising progress, but, on
account of race troubles, his advancement was brought to a rude standstill.
Subsequently he became a student in the Lincoln school, and remained here until
he matriculated in Father McGirr’s school. Father McGirr’s school had been a
school for white persons, but on learning of young Tolton’s treatment, he
closed it to whites and made it a school for colored people. He invited Tolton
to enter and from the start took deep interest in him. In 1863 he left Father McGirr’s
school and began the study of Latin, Greek, German, Hebrew and Homiletics under
Fathers Astrup and Theodore Wegman. They suggested to him the propriety of
preparing for the priesthood, and he made up his mind to act upon their
suggestion. He prosecuted his studies under them with great diligence, and remained
with them until they left Quincy. After their departure he became very
despondent-: it seemed that his dream of becoming a priest would never be
realized. But a circumstance soon happened that altered at least temporarily this
condition. A priest in Nurtiurn Missouri engaged his mother as housekeeper, and
agreed to assist him with his studies. But their stay here was of short
duration. By this time powerful white friends, however, had become interested
in him and sent him to Propaganda College, Rome, where he was graduated in due
time and received the honors of priesthood.
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