Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-11-06
By MARY CHURCH TERRELL

DO you know VINO the nuns are
that live in that convent" q friend
asked me one day as we passed
building on Fifteenth street near 8
street NV. "They are. colored."
she continued, land there are so
few colored nuns anywhere. I won-
der what they do"
resolved to be able to answer
those questions satisfactorily very
soon. And there was revealed to me
an interesting bit Of history relat-
ing to q group of people comprising
practically one-third Of the popu-
lation of the National Capital.
The Oblate Sisters OF Providence
live in that building on Fifteenth
street near s. There are three con-
vents of that order In the city and
connected with each OF them is .
school that Is taught by nuns. One
Of them is st. Augustines on FIJI
tenth street in which there are II
nuns who teach 800 boys and girls.
Another is st. AIMS convent at $40
Eighth street Sc. in which there
are II nuns who teach about 1924
pupils at st. Cyprian's school ut the
same address. st. AIMS convent
is named for Miss Ann Atkins, who
gave the ground on which it was
founded in 1892. The third is st.
Vincent de Paul's at 233 I street
S.W. in which there are three nuns
who teach about. 80 children ir the
first and second grades. It Is the
smallest and was closed for 1lve
years on account of lack Of funds
ST. Augustine's school takes the
children through the ninth grade
and st. Cyprian's takes them
through the 10th grade with the
help of two nuns from Alexandria.
Both of these schools prepare the
pupils for the senior high schools,
the Dunbar, the Armstrong or the
Cardozo.
Followed French Revolution.
1t would be hard to ind an in
stitution either in q church or out
Of 1t whose beginning borders more
on the unreal and improbable than
does that of the Oblate Sisters of
Providence. They owe the found
ing of their institution to the
French Revolution. 1t would seem
a far cry indeed from the violence
and bloodshed of that awful up
heaval to the calm and beneficence
Of a community of colored nuns In
the United States, but the union
between these extremes Is very
easily shown.
AS result of the French Revolu-
ton there were rebellions and riots
in Santo Domingo and other islands
at the close Of the 18th and the be-
ginning of the 10th century. Thou
sans of refugees. most Of whom were
French and nearly all of whom were
Catholics, hocked to Baltimore and
many among them were colored.
Some Of these colored refugees were
we'll educated and we'll to do. The
spiritual welfare Of the colored San
Dominican Catholics was cared for
by an order of the church which had
fled from France to Baltimore to
open st. Mary's Seminary for the
education of priests. The colored
Catholics worshiped in the base
ment of this chapel, which is still
standing. And the church which
was organized in 1896 In the base
ment Of the chapel, which Is the
Oldest Catholic building in Balti-
more, was the first colored Catholic
congregation in the United States.
About 30 years later Father
Joubert, Frenchman. who was q
Dominican exile, took charge of the
colored children of the congregation
and was greatly panied to find them
too illiterate to study the simplest
prayers. There were no public
schools for colored children in Balti-
more until after the Civil War.
Father Joubert decided to open q
school for colored children. His
superiors thought 1t would be an
excellent thing to do, but lack of
funds would make such q thing i'm
possible, they said. But the French
priest went to Archbishop Whitfield,
an Englishman, who heartily ap-
proved of his plan and gave him
permission to begin his work as soon
as he could.
Gave Up Free School.
Then Father Joubert thought of
two colored women, Elizabeth LANCE