Zachary Daniel McKiernan, ABD, The Basilica of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception
Proposal Type: Community Documentary
Abstract: On Good Friday in 1961, Norfolk’s black Catholics marched from St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and School to St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, a journey of about a mile. A few weeks later, Norfolk’s city planners razed St. Joseph’s in the name of urban renewal, while most of St. Mary’s all white congregation took flight to churches in Virginia Beach. The march from Norfolk’s African-American Catholic Church—St. Joe’s in the popular parlance of its parishioners—to St. Mary’s signified a great loss for black Catholics, the exodus from sacred ground —a sanctuary—to an uncertain future. It appeared that even a pillar of faith couldn’t escape the bull-dozers of city officials or the decision of the Diocese of Richmond to approve the destruction. Meanwhile, the modern civil rights movement dawned. African Americans broke the color lines throughout Hampton Roads. They integrated public schools, lunch counters, and city facilities. And the parishioner s from St. Joe’s took their anger, their fear, their apprehension—the loss of their spiritual home—and began to turned it into a legacy of stewardship and service in their new home, transforming a dominantly white Catholic church into the Basilica of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception.
The March to the Minor Basilica is a documentary film project spearheaded by St. Mary’s parishioner Glen Mason, president of Right Angle Media, who attended St. Joe’s as a boy. It proposes to tell the “tale of two parishes whose paths crossed long ago and, again, in 1961.” To do so, Mason, church officials, and myself are currently collecting oral, archival, and other source material for a screenplay to complement filming that began at the 2013 Christmas Eve mass and gospel choir concert. That St. Mary’s is the only African American Basilica in the United States makes its history compelling. But it also serves as a prism for state and church policies of segregation, and how local communities overcame or adapted to such policies. The March to the Minor Basilica details the longer history of black Catholicism in Hampton Roads by alerting the viewers to the historical relationship between St. Joe’s and St. Mary’s. It also highlights the “host of people who police the corners of St. Joseph’s history, ensuring that neither any obscure vestige from our collective memory nor any forgotten artifact would be buried beyond reach.”
Seeking: In many ways, Mason’s documentary project encompasses many public history components, as much as “history on the edge.” My own move to Norfolk and membership in St. Mary’s parish last year has sensitized me to the power of St. Mary’s as a place (constructed in 1858) and as a community (with roots traced back to French Catholics fleeing the Haitian Revolution with their slaves). “We’re both about to embark on a remarkable story,” Mason explained to me with an invitation to join the documentary project.
Mason—who directed and produced “The Feast of St. Joseph’s and His Many Children” about St. Joe’s Catholic School—and I are interested in connecting with public history practitioners who have worked on similar projects, whether church-based community histories, African-American religion, public histories of segregation/integration, and/or documentary projects. The NCPH’s “History on the Edge” Conference also corresponds to the completion timeline for The March to the Minor Basilica and could prove a promising platform to present it, the process to create it, and the research it required.
Related Topics: Digital, Civic Engagement, Place
If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to share contact information for other people the proposer should reach out to, please get in contact directly: Zachary Daniel McKiernan, zmckiernan[at]umail.ucsb.edu
If you have general ideas or feedback to share please feel free to use the comments feature below.
Will it be ready in time to propose a screening and discussion? That seems to me to make the most sense.
Hi Denise,
Yes, we hope to have the documentary finished by next April. If this is the case, I agree: a screening and discussion would be great.
If this is not the case, a discussion/panel could be had about the process to make the documentary (re: difficulties, demands, etc.) and, of course, the research behind it, which is what I’ll be working on over the next semester.
I am happy to keep you abreast of updates as we progress.
Thank you for this note and your interest.