A week after the nation’s Catholic bishops met in Baltimore, St. Francis Xavier Catholic Academy in Washington, D.C., hosted a gathering on Nov. 22 of some bishops, and also women religious, potential saints, famous entertainers, star athletes and noted writers, all portrayed by fourth and fifth graders there for the school’s first National Black Catholic Live Wax Museum.

“Because it (November) is Black Catholic History Month, we wanted to do something special,” said Sister Patricia Ralph, a Sister of St. Joseph who teaches the fourth and fifth grades there.

She had the idea of having her students select historic or contemporary Black Catholic men and women, research their lives and then portray them in the school’s multipurpose room. That morning, the room became an impromptu museum, with students dressed as those figures sitting beside tri-paneled poster boards that included reproduced paintings or photos or their hand-drawn portraits of the people they were portraying, plus facts about their lives, including a timeline and what their childhood was like.

As St. Francis Xavier students from other classes visited the museum that morning and waved their hands in front of one of the noted Black Catholics, the students pretending to be wax figures would come to life, and speak about whomever they were portraying.

On the room’s stage, fourth grader Jordan Lewis portrayed Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory. “He was the first African American cardinal, and he inspired me,” Lewis said. Cardinal Gregory, who became Washington’s archbishop in 2019 and was elevated to the rank of cardinal the next year, had visited St. Francis Xavier Catholic Academy the month earlier and addressed students in that same room. Lewis wore his burgundy colored school shirt instead of cardinal red.

Nearby sat fellow fourth grader Peter Njoya, portraying retired Memphis Bishop J. Terry Steib, a champion of Catholic education who reopened eight Catholic schools in that Tennessee city. “He was a teacher, and it inspired me to want to be a teacher,” said Njoya, who also said he was interested in being a priest some day. “He (Bishop Steib) also prays a lot. He has strong faith,” Njoya added.

Also among the hierarchy being portrayed on that stage was Bishop Leonard Olivier, a Louisiana native and priest of the Society of the Divine Word who served as an auxiliary bishop of Washington from 1988 to 2004 after earlier serving as a seminary rector and parish priest. Bishop Olivier, who died in 2014, was portrayed by fifth grader William Roberts Harris.

The museum’s bishops also included Bishop Joseph Francis, portrayed by fifth grader Odion Davis, who praised him for speaking out against racism. Bishop Francis, another Louisiana native and priest of the Society of the Divine Word, served as an auxiliary bishop of Newark, New Jersey from 1976 to 1995 and was the principal author of the U.S. bishops’ 1979 pastoral letter condemning the sin of racism, “Brothers and Sisters to Us.” Bishop Francis died in 1997. “Black people weren’t being treated fairly, and he wanted to make a difference,” the student said.

Nearby, other St. Francis Xavier students portrayed Black Catholic women religious who have made their mark on their Church, their country and their communities.

Sister Mary Antona Ebo, a Franciscan Sister of Mary, was among those who joined the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the 1965 march for voting rights in Selma, Alabama. She died   in 2017 at the age of 93. Portraying her, fifth grader Jaliyah Robinson said she marched for civil rights to show other people the cause was important. She wore a traditional religious habit and veil resembling that worn by Sister Mary Antona Ebo when she marched for civil rights.

Sister Patricia Chappell – a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur and the former president of the National Black Sisters’ Conference and the former executive director of Pax Christi USA – was portrayed by fourth grader Cheyenne Prigg, who was wearing a replica of the cross worn by that order’s sisters. She spoke to Sister Chappell on the phone. “I would like to be like her… I was inspired by her. I like going to church, and we have a lot of stuff in common,” the student said.

Sister Patricia Ralph, the St. Francis Xavier teacher who had the idea for the museum, was portrayed by fourth grader Kalynn Johnson. “I try to get my students to learn as much as they can so they can go to college and have a career,” Kalynn said as she portrayed her teacher. She added that Sister Patricia taught her mother at Holy Name School in Washington and said, “I want to be a sister when I grow up.”

Fourth grader Rhiley Jackson portrayed Sister Lynn Marie Ralph, Sister Patricia’s identical twin sister who is a member of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and is a former teacher and principal and now works for the Office of Black Catholics in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Sister Rosetta Brown, a Sinsinawa Dominican sister and board member of the National Black Sisters’ Conference, was portrayed by fifth grader Logan Felder, who talked to her on the phone and said, “She was very kind to me.” 

Sister Josita Colbert a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur who serves as president of the National Black Sisters’ Conference, was portrayed by fifth grader Tayhlor Payne, who spoke to her on the phone twice and said, “I admired how kind she is (and) all she’s been through.”

Addressing a guest to the living wax museum, fifth grader Isaiah Smith said he was portraying Father Charles Smith, a priest of the Society of the Divine Word originally from Chicago. “My brother and I are the first African American twins to become priests,” he said. Nearby, fifth grader Chase Blakney was portraying that priest’s identical twin brother, Father Chester Smith, SVD, who died in 2020 and had been president of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus and a parish priest known for his work in youth ministry. “He told people how to be thankful for everything,” Blakney said.

Another contemporary Black priest, Father Stephen Thorne, was portrayed by fifth grader Micah Barr. Father Thorne recently served as pastor of St. Martin de Porres Parish in Philadelphia and is now the chairperson for racial healing in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

In another part of the multipurpose room, students portrayed several famous entertainers. Fifth grader Kaylin Logan held a microphone and wore a stylish jacket and bright shoes as she portrayed singer and songwriter Gladys Knight. Knight, who converted to Catholicism and later became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is most famous for her hit “Midnight Train to Georgia,” which she sang with the Pips, who included her brother and cousins. “I can sing, and she can also sing, so she fit me perfectly,” said Logan.

Fellow fifth grader Arden Carroll, who also likes to sing, portrayed Josephine Baker, who gained fame as a dancer and singer in France and supported the French Resistance during World War II and later joined the March on Washington in 1963 with Dr. Martin Luther King. Baker converted to Catholicism in her later years, and after she died in 1975, her Catholic Funeral Mass and the procession in Paris drew 20,000 mourners. “I admired that she could do great things,” Carroll said.

Other students portraying Black Catholic singers included fourth grader Paige Wright as jazz singer Billie Holiday, famous for singing “God Bless the Child” and “Strange Fruit,” and fourth grader Chanelle Rempson as singer, actress and civil rights activist Lena Horne, known for singing “Stormy Weather” in the movie of that name. Nearby, fellow fourth grader Trinity Williams portrayed singer and dancer Solange Knowles, who was raised Catholic as a young child until her family became Methodist.

Also in the entertainers’ section of the students’ museum, fifth grader Rashid Curtis portrayed jazz trumpeter, composer and bandleader Wynton Marsalis, wearing a grey suit and holding a trumpet crafted out of aluminum foil.

In a section of the room featuring Black Catholic sports stars, fifth grader Kendall Wilson, wearing a stars-and-stripes gymnastics outfit, portrayed Olympic gold medal winning gymnast Dominique Dawes, who was part of medal winning U.S. gymnastics teams at the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996, in Barcelona, Spain in 1992 and in Sydney, Australia in 2000. Dawes is now a wife and mother and runs a gymnastics academy in Clarksburg, Maryland. Fourth grader Breonna Larkins portrayed Olympic champion gymnast Simone Biles, the most decorated gymnast of all time with 32 Olympic and world championship medals. “I do gymnastics, and I love it,” Larkins said.

Portraying Hank Aaron – who converted to Catholicism while he played baseball for the Milwaukee Braves and later in life became Baptist – was fourth grader Amari Harley, who held a bat and wore a baseball jersey. “I beat Babe Ruth’s record of 714 home runs,” Harley said, describing Aaron’s most famous accomplishment.

As Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Hall of Fame basketball player who won five NBA championships, fifth grader Noah Parker said, “I admire that he never gave up.”

Holding a basketball, fourth grader Princess Kennedy portrayed and wore the jersey of Nneka Ogwumike, a Nigerian American star for the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks. Nearby, fifth grader Denard Williams portrayed Isiah Thomas, a Hall of Fame basketball player for the Detroit Pistons. Williams explained that Thomas is “known for being one of the best point guards in history.”

In the political section of the living wax museum, fourth grader Anajé  Crump portrayed D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who is a lifelong Catholic and graduated from Elizabeth Seton High School in Bladensburg, Maryland, and fellow fourth grader Xaiden Young portrayed Vincent Gray, the Ward 7 councilmember for the District of Columbia who served as the city’s mayor from 2011-15. Fifth grader London Graham portrayed Donna Brazile, a former presidential campaign political strategist who now serves as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and as a contributor to Fox News.

In the center of the multipurpose room, a group of students portrayed several noted Black Catholics known not for their professions, accomplishments or fame, but for the holy lives they led, and whose sainthood causes are now under consideration. 

In that section, fifth grader Kennedy Powell portrayed Servant of God Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, who in 1829 co-founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first religious order in the United States for women of African descent. One year earlier, Mother Lange opened the country’s first Black Catholic school in Baltimore at a time when there was no public education provided to Black children in Maryland, and it was against the law to educate enslaved people. In August 2021, Mother Mary Lange Catholic School opened in Baltimore, the city’s first new Catholic school in 60 years. Dressed in an outfit that resembled the Oblate Sister’s traditional habit, Powell noted that Mother Lange was inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame and added, “I want to be a sister when I grow up.”

Fourth grader Penelope Hawkins portrayed Venerable Henriette Delille of New Orleans, a descendant of slaves who founded the Sisters of the Holy Family. She and her sisters cared for the poor, including enslaved people, the sick, orphans and the elderly. Mother Delille was known for saying, “I believe in God. I hope in God. I love. I want to live and die for God.”

Portraying Venerable Father Augustus Tolton, fifth grader Jeremiah Thomas said, “I traveled to Rome. I became the first African American priest.” Born into slavery, Father Tolton was baptized and raised Catholic, and in 1886 he was ordained and became the first Catholic priest in the United States known to be Black. Because of racism, he had to study for the priesthood and be ordained in Rome. He later served as a parish priest in Chicago, dying there in 1897 at the age of 43.

Nearby, fourth grader Winter McGill portrayed Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman, a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration born in Mississippi who taught in the elementary, high school and college levels and who later became a dynamic, nationally known evangelist, singer and storyteller, joyfully preaching the Gospel. In her talks to audiences that included parish groups and the national gathering of U.S. bishops, Sister Thea called for Catholics to work together for racial justice and emphasized the importance of Catholic educational opportunities for Black children. “I try each day to see God’s will,” said Sister Thea, who endured racial prejudice during her life and suffered from cancer before dying in 1990. McGill, the student portraying her, said, “She was a very brave woman… and she overcame a lot of things.”

Fifth grader Jayson Baynes portrayed Venerable Pierre Toussaint, a Haitian American who was brought to New York City as a slave and became a popular hair stylist in the city. After becoming free, he was well known for supporting many charities, and he and his wife opened their home to orphans and cared for people suffering from yellow fever. After his death, Pierre Toussaint was interred in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where he and fellow Blacks were once denied entrance because of their race. 

Students also portrayed noted Black Catholic journalists and writers.

TODAY show weather forecaster and co-host Al Roker was portrayed by fourth grader Joseph Chase. Fellow fourth grader Zion Cox portrayed pioneer journalist Daniel Rudd, who in 1885 founded the American Catholic Tribune, a national Catholic publication. Depicting Rudd, who urged the Catholic Church to take a leading role in the fight for racial justice, Cox noted that he organized the first Black Catholic Congress, which took place at St. Augustine Church in Washington in 1889.

“My name is Toni Morrison, and I love to create books,” said fifth grader Amani Simms, portraying the Catholic author of Song of Solomon and Beloved who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. Simms noted that when Morrison “was a child, no one believed in her, or thought she could make it.”

Fifth grader Kiley White portrayed poet Amanda Gorman, wearing a bright yellow sweater that resembled the jacket that Gorman wore on January 20, 2021 outside the U.S. Capitol at the inauguration of President Joseph Biden when she recited her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” and at 22 became the youngest person in history to deliver a poetry reading at a presidential inauguration. White said she admired Gorman – who grew up attending a Catholic parish in Los Angeles – for overcoming a speech impediment on her way to graduating from Harvard University and becoming a celebrated poet.

That morning, Sister Patricia Ralph said she hoped the St. Francis Xavier Catholic Academy students participating in the National Black Catholic Live Wax Museum would “gain a respect of the Catholic religion, and take pride not only in their own religion, but in other people’s religion.”

The veteran educator said she was moved by seeing the joy on students’ faces, and “the excitement of it, and how they came through and learned about other people they’re familiar with and did not know were Catholic.”