Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Church

Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Church is a Roman Catholic church in Frenchtown, an area within the Fifth Ward of Houston. It was the second black Catholic church to be established in the city,[1] and it was the first Louisiana Creole Catholic church in Houston.[2] It was also the first institution created by non-Anglophones in an African-American neighborhood in Houston.[3] It is a part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.

Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Church

Church membership included both Creoles and non-Creole African-Americans.[4]

History

For a period the closest black church to the Fifth Ward was St. Nicholas, located in the Third Ward,[5] about 3 miles (4.8 km) away.[6]

In the 1920s a group of Louisiana Creole people attended the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church because OLG was the closest church to Frenchtown.[5] Because the OLG church treated the Creole people in a discriminatory manner, by forcing them to confess and take communion after people of other races did so and after forcing them to take the back pews,[7] the Creoles opted to build their own church.[8] In order to acquire funds, Creole families hosted dinners, dances, and parties. They served Louisiana Creole cuisine, using the food to acquire the means to build the church.[9]

In 1928 the Roman Catholic Diocese of Galveston-Houston purchased two city blocks along Sumpter Street: the 4000 block and the 4100 block. On April 28, 1928, the groundbreaking occurred. The building was completed in the northern hemisphere spring of 1929. The Josephite Society financed the church.[10] The Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Church was officially founded in June 1929.[1] On June 9, 1929, Galveston-Houston bishop Byrne blessed the church.[10] The school opened several years later.[8] The church became a diocesan church on June 30, 1930. The school, Our Mother of Mercy School, opened as a school for grades 1 through 12 in the 1930s.[11] A convent and rectory were established on the property.[10]

Works Progress Administration employees wrote about the church in the 1930s. Tyina L. Steptoe, author of Houston Bound: Culture and Color in a Jim Crow City, stated that they "noted the centrality of the church" to area residents.[3] By World War II, over half of Houston's black Catholics had attended the church, and over 4,000 black children, both Catholic and non-Catholic, had attended its school.[10]

Other black churches in Acres Homes, Sunnyside, Trinity Gardens, and other communities used Our Mother of Mercy as a feeder church.[10]

Recreation

Historically the church sponsored bazaars and dances. Alcohol was sold at the bazaars. The practices of drinking alcohol and dancing communities differed from those of Protestant communities in Texas, which had historically prohibited drinking alcohol and did not have dancing to popular music during church events.[8]

School
Our Mother of Mercy Catholic School
Our Mother of Mercy Catholic School
Address
2010 Benson Street, Houston, Texas 77020
Coordinates29.7802°N 95.3299°W / 29.7802; -95.3299
Information
TypeParochial, segregated
Religious affiliation(s)Roman Catholic
Opened1930 or 1931
Closed2009
GradesPreK-8 (initially 1-12)
AffiliationRoman Catholic Church
Websiteomomschool.org
Last updated: 29 December 2017

Our Mother of Mercy Catholic School opened in fall 1930[11] or fall 1931,[12] and closed in Spring 2009.[13]

When it opened it served grades 1-12.[12] The initial teaching force was the New Orleans-based Sisters of the Holy Family.[11]

The school was consolidated with the St. Francis of Assisi School. As of 2009 the OMM school,[14] which at that time was a PreK-8 school,[12] had its annual tuition as $3,000 ($3575.15 when adjusted for inflation).[14]

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See also

References
  • Pruitt, Bernadette. The Other Great Migration: The Movement of Rural African Americans to Houston, 1900-1941 (Sam Rayburn Series on Rural Life, sponsored by Texas A&M University-Commerce). Texas A&M University Press, October 24, 2013. ISBN 1603449485, 9781603449489.

Notes
  1. Catholic Youth Organization, Diocese of Galveston. Houston District. Centennial: The Story of the Kingdom of God on Earth in that Portion of the Vineyard which for One Hundred Years Has Been the Diocese of Galveston. Catholic Youth Organization, Centennial Book Committee, 1947. p. 76. "Our Mother of Mercy Church, the second Negro parish to be established in Houston, was founded in June, 1929. Bishop Christopher E. Byrne purchased two city blocks, on Sumpter Street, and ground was[...]" ("Negro" is an outdated term for African-American).
  2. Evans, David. Ramblin' on My Mind: New Perspectives on the Blues (African American Music in Global Perspective). University of Illinois Press, January 2, 2008. ISBN 0252091124, 9780252091124. p. 363.
  3. Steptoe, Tyina L. Houston Bound: Culture and Color in a Jim Crow City (Volume 41 of American Crossroads). University of California Press, November 3, 2015. ISBN 0520958535, 9780520958531. p. 117.
  4. Steptoe, Tyina Leaneice (University of Wisconsin-Madison). Dixie West: Race, Migration, and the Color Lines in Jim Crow Houston (PhD thesis for a history degree). ProQuest, 2008. ISBN 0549635874, 9780549635871. p. 202. "Our Mother of Mercy Catholic church, began as a space of autonomy for Creoles but became a contact zone as a result of intermingling between the groups. Black Texans attended school and mass at Our Mother of Mercy and [...]"
  5. Steptoe, Tyina Leaneice (University of Wisconsin-Madison). Dixie West: Race, Migration, and the Color Lines in Jim Crow Houston (PhD thesis for a history degree). ProQuest, 2008. ISBN 0549635874, 9780549635871. p. 195.
  6. Pruitt, Bernadette. The Other Great Migration: The Movement of Rural African Americans to Houston, 1900-1941 (Issue 21 of Sam Rayburn series on rural life, sponsored by Texas A&M University-Commerce, Book collections on Project MUSE). Texas A&M University Press, October 24, 2013. ISBN 1603449485, 9781603449489. p. 115
  7. Steptoe, Tyina Leaneice (University of Wisconsin-Madison). Dixie West: Race, Migration, and the Color Lines in Jim Crow Houston (PhD thesis for a history degree). ProQuest, 2008. ISBN 0549635874, 9780549635871. p. 195-196.
  8. Steptoe, Tyina Leaneice (University of Wisconsin-Madison). Dixie West: Race, Migration, and the Color Lines in Jim Crow Houston (PhD thesis for a history degree). ProQuest, 2008. ISBN 0549635874, 9780549635871. p. 196.
  9. Pruitt, p. 78.
  10. Pruitt, p. 115.
  11. "History of the Church." Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Church. Retrieved on April 18, 2014.
  12. "About Us." Our Mother of Mercy Catholic School. March 28, 2007. Retrieved on March 7, 2018.
  13. "Archdiocesan Announcement Catholic Schools Plan." Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. February 5, 2009. Retrieved on February 6, 2009.
  14. Murphy, Bill. "Four Catholic schools to be closed in Houston." Houston Chronicle. February 6, 2009. Retrieved on February 7, 2009.
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