Last year at a diocesan-sponsored talk by living civil rights legend Franciscan Sister Antona Ebo in honor of Black History Month, Bishop John M. Smith made a promise.

So moved was the bishop by the personal witness of Sister Antona and the PBS documentary film “Sisters of Selma” of which she was a part, that he pledged to do his best to see that every Catholic school in the diocese be sent a copy of the film that chronicled the march for voter’s rights in the racial battleground of Selma, Alabama in 1965.

During this year’s observance of Black History Month, the bishop is not only delivering on that promise, but the diocese has gone even further. The Office of Radio and Television has, through its programs “Catholic Corner” and “Black Catholics Yes!” told the story of Sister Antona and her fellow religious who played an historic role in the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, the bishop is sending each of the Catholic schools in Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth and Ocean Counties a copy of both the PBS documentary, “Sisters of Selma”, as well as the two-part series of “Catholic Corner” which explores this time in history and features Sister Antona’s reflections on the march.

The “Catholic Corner” series will also be featured beginning Feb. 8 on local cable stations throughout the diocese. Program host Msgr. Walter Nolan and studio guest Ellieen Ancrum, director of the Office of Black Apostolate, will discuss the lasting impact of the Selma event and one of the persons at its forefront.

The series will feature excerpts from an interview of Sister Antona conducted by “Black Catholics Yes!” host Angela Dodson last year. In the interview that preceded her remarks to the 2008 gathering in St. Anthony of Padua Parish Center, Hightstown, Sister Antona refers to her participation in the Selma march as “God calling my bluff.” She explains that she had always supported equal rights, but when the opportunity came to lay her personal safety on the line for that cause, she had to pray through her fear and ask for God’s help. The interview was heard in its entirety on the “Black Catholics Yes!” radio program in November.

Elizabeth Louise Ebo was raised a Baptist but was inspired by a childhood friend to learn about the Catholic faith. She took religious classes while isolated in a tuberculosis sanatorium and was baptized a Catholic at age 18 after her graduation from a Catholic high school. After entering the United States Cadet Nurse program in the segregated Catholic School of Nursing in St. Louis, Missouri, Sister Antona answered the call to religious life and was one of the first three young Black women to be considered by the Order of the Sisters of Mary in 1946.The new Sister Mary Antona earned a master of science degree in medical record administration and became the first African American woman religious administrator of a Catholic hospital in the United States.

On March 7, 1965, a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his followers quickly and tragically turned violent when the peaceful protestors were savagely attacked by local police in full view of television cameras. The violence of that “Bloody Sunday” galvanized civil rights supporters from across the country. By the following Wednesday, civil rights supporters streamed into Selma to protest the attacks and voting laws which prevented Black Alabama residents from casting ballots. Six religious women of the Sisters of Mary Order in St. Louis traveled south to join the protestors and found themselves at the head of the phalanx. Sister Antona, the only Black nun in attendance, was one of the group halted a block later by club-wielding, Confederate flag-waving law enforcement officers. She bravely defied the authorities and addressed the reporters in attendance: “I’m here because I’m a Negro, a nun, a Catholic and because I want to bear witness.” In addition to her historic role as administrator of St. Clare’s Hospital in Baraboo, Wis., the following year, in 1968 she became one of the founding sisters of the National Black Sisters’ Conference.

This trailblazer also served as councilor general of her congregation, now renamed the Franciscan Sisters of Mary, in 1987. Sister Antona earned a master’s degree from Aquinas Institute of Theology and served as chaplain of the University of Mississippi Medical Center in the 1980s. Sister Antona’s entire life stands as a witness to the power of overcoming racial discrimination. Her numerous awards and accolades for service to the Church and society include an honorary Doctor of Human Letters by Loyola University of Chicago and an Alabama State Senate commendation for civil rights.

The now 82-year-old nun has frequently commented, “I don’t have many more days. I don’t have time to be resting,” which is why she continues to speak throughout the country about the American journey toward racial equality and civil rights.

In coordinating distribution of the film and the diocesan coverage to the schools, Ancrum expressed her hope that it will be used for discussion at all grade levels, but especially for classes that are studying U.S. history and social justice. She remarked, “It’s an important part of our American heritage that is not often told. What better way do we, as a Catholic community, have to celebrate Black History Month?”

For a full listing of diocesan radio and television programming, as well as airing schedules, see the Media Guide on page 23 or visit www.dioceseoftrenton.org.