THE INTERVIEW
‘ALL GOD’S CHILDREN GOT A ROBE’ Fr. Joseph Brown on uncovering,
accepting and embracing ourco
our common Catholic r By: Kathy Felong
Cath today? Plenty, says Fr. Joseph Brown, SJ, Ph.D. W
Te historian, poet and essayist is professor of Africana Studies at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. His extensive academic and pastoral career includes master’s degrees in creative writing and Afro-American Studies, and a doctorate in American studies from Yale University. He has taught at Creighton University, the University of Virginia and Xavier University.
He’s also a poet, an essayist, a man of challenging insights.
Beginning in 2014, Fr. Brown became the founding chair of the 1917 Centennial Commission Cultural Initiative. Te Commission coordinates activities commemorating the 1917 East St. Louis Race Riots. Historians believe more than 100 people— including women and children—died and hundreds were injured in the bloody pogrom.
At the upcoming NPM convention in Louisville, Fr. Brown will offer a thought-provoking plenum
22 holic oo c rootts
hat does the music of our faith—the lived Catholic faith of enslaved African- Americans—have to say to Catholics
on our baptismal garment, entitled “All God’s Children Got a Robe: Te Garments of our Faith— Intended, Promised and Realized: Religious Transformation and Black Sacred Song.”
Tis is the interview . . .
Pastoral Music: Your topic at NPM’s Louisville convention focuses on Black Sacred Song and its role in transforming enslaved Africans. What’s the connection to the conference’s baptismal focus?
Fr. Brown: Te stereotypical understanding is that when African Americans were brought to the United States, they were forced to become Christians. Tat’s simply not true. Instead, colonists in Virginia asked the Bishop of London if it was okay to baptize Africans and keep them enslaved since many felt if you baptize people you have to treat then as your sister and brother and make them free.
Te Bishop of London said, “Not a problem. Tey’ll be free in the eyes of God, but not in your plantation.” Even though they may have been baptized they were not allowed to wear their garment politically, culturally, and religiously.
Photo courtesy of Te Clarion Herald, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of New Orleans
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