Sisters of Selma

1836

In 17th century Europe, when most orders of women religious spent their days praying within the walls of their convents, the French Sisters of St. Joseph had felt themselves called by the Holy Spirit to serve God's people in a different way--by going out into their town, seeing what the needs were, and then trying to meet those needs by doing "any works of which women were capable." This was the mission of the small group that in Missouri became the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. 

1965

Sister Ernest Marie (Roberta Schmidt) CSJ was teaching sociology at the Fontbonne College in St. Louis, operated by the Sisters of St. Joseph.  Fontbonne had voluntarily desegregated in the 50's.  Although the campus had only a few Black women, across the street was Washington University where students were more than aware of the current social unrest.  

Besides, the Archbishop of St. Louis, Cardinal Joseph E. Ritter, was one of the most forward-thinking of prelates in the matter of race.  He had instituted the St. Louis Archdiocesan Commission on Human Rights chaired by Monsignor Francis Doyle.  Sister Ernest Merie served on that commission.

Teaching philosophy at Fontbonne, was Sister Thomas Marguerite (Rosemary Flanigan).  Since nuns were not allowed to travel alone, Sister Ernest Marie asked Sister Thomas Marguerite if she would go, too.  Sister Thomas Marguerite said, "Show me the way."

March 10, 1965: 

Sister Thomas Marguerite's account of that day is one of the most detailed available.

We landed at the airfield outside the Alabama town of 25,000 inhabitants, 57% of whom were Negroes...the car I was in drove through muddy back alleys past Negro dwellings unlike any I have seen even in St. Louis' worst slums...the 12-car motorcade took us first to the Edmundite Mission, then to Brown Chapel.

The church service had begun when Father (Edward) O'Donnell led the six of us into Brown Chapel with the rest of the delegation.  There was no break in the singing of the hymns.  I looked up for the first time into the faces of one of the most diversified groups I had ever seen.  Sitting on the worn carpet of the aisle was an overall-clad Quaker, his beaver hat pulled over his ears.  Sprinkled through the first few rows were well-dressed Harvard students who had marched to the courthouse between ranks of State troopers the previous day...clergymen in black, blue, and charcoal gray...and Jewish rabbis. 

Sister Thomas Marguerite describes the speeches they heard in the next two and a half hours as well as each colorful speaker.  They explained the history of the civil rights movement in Alabama and the strategies for non-violent protest.  

The church was cleared and the marchers assembled outside, the St. Louisans leading and the six of us placed toward the front.  A half-block away stood the lines of blue-helmeted State troopers, bearing Confederate-flag insignia on their uniforms, interspersed with the white-helmeted members of the posse.  Mayor (Joe) Smitherman was there, too, flanked by Public Safety Director Wilson Baker and Sheriff Jim Clark.  

As we moved toward them I heard Father O'Donnell say, "Get the nuns in the middle with men on either side.  If they push from the rear, pull the nuns over to the curb."  That was my only moment of fear...

I heard the Reverend Mr. (Louis) Anderson ask if we could "march to our courthouse."  Mayor Smitherman answered: "You've had ample opportunity to become registered voters.  There will be no marching..."

When the speeches were finished, Father Jerome of St. Nicholas Church, St. Louis, led us in prayer.  We all joined in, finally, to recite the Our Father, and where the Roman Catholics stopped, the Protestants finished alone: "...for Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory..."  We turned around, and in a spontaneous movement, linked hands and sang "We Shall Overcome."  I found myself holding the hand of a priest from St. Paul, and the hand of Sister Antona on the other side. 

The sisters at the hospital had soup and bread ready for the visitors, and at 4pm, Sister Thomas Marguerite remembers,  "we were aloft and headed home."  

 "In our last two hours," remembers Sister Thomas Marguerite," when the nighttime beams of KMOX stretched to 40 states and Canada, over 10,000 calls were registered and over 500 long-distance calls put through."  Not everyone was laudatory.  "Don't you know," a Selma man admonished, "that integration means interracial marriage--and who wants that?"

excerpts from America, April 3, 1965

March 13, 1965:

The thought hit me that I could easily come home in a box.  But I said, whatever comes, I can face it.  From then on, I was morally and ethically bound to the cause.

as told to The Catholic Key (Jan 14, 1990)

By Monday, the voting rights activists had persuaded the city authorities to take the state's ban on demonstrations to a federal judge.  The morale of the state troopers was low--they had been killed with kindness, expressions of love, and freedom songs.  Sister Ann Benedict remembers that some of the younger state troopers had fear rather than anger in their eyes.  Later that day, the barricades to the courthouse came down.  That was also the day President Lyndon Johnson addressed the nation about the Voting Rights Bill introduced into Congress.  Sister Ann Benedict heard him say, disregarding the separation of church and state, "God will not favor everything we do...but I cannot help believing...that He really favors the undertaking that we begin here tonight."

40 Years Later... 

Sister Roberta Schmidt served in diocesan educational administration all over the country and is now Director of Education in the Diocese of Venice, Florida.  She continues to be an advocate for women and victims of oppression worldwide.  She went to Columbus, Georgia "to stand peacefully in opposition to the School of the Americas" which trains paramilitary fighters for U.S. drug wars in South America.

Sister Rosemary Flanigan taught for many years in St. Louis and Kansas City, then became one of the board members of  the Midwest Bioethics Center whose mission is to integrate ethical considerations into healthcare decision-making. 

Sister Barbara Moore says that the Civil Rights Movement and the Second Vatican Council were the two formative influences in her life in the 1960's.  Ironically, her trip to Selma opened her eyes to the discrimination against Blacks and minorities in Kansas City which was "more subtle, but no less prevalent."  At the same time, she was studying Vatican II documents which had just been translated.