Sister Thea Bowman (1937-1990)

This day in 1990 marks the death of Sister Thea Bowman (1937-1990), a leading figure in the African-American Catholic community. Born Bertha Bowman in Yazoo, Mississippi, her grandfather was a slave. Her father was a doctor and her mother a teacher. At age ten, she converted to Catholicism. As a young woman she joined the Franciscsan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, studying at the community’s Viterbo University. In 1972 she earned a doctorate in English from Catholic University. She taught at every level from elementary to college until the bishop of Jackson, Mississippi, invited her to become his consultant for intercultural awareness. In this role, she spoke throughout the country, giving presentations that combined singing, gospel preaching, prayer, and storytelling. She was giving over one hundred presentations each year before she was diagnosed with terminal bone cancer in 1984. She prayed “to live until I die — to live fully.” She continued her schedule in a wheelchair. In 1989, the U.S. bishops invited her to be a key speaker at their conference on Black Catholics. At the end of the meeting, at Sister Thea’s invitation, the bishops stood and sang “We Shall Overcome.” In a 60 Minutes interview with Mike Wallace she said: “I think the difference between me and some people is that I’m content to do my little bit. Sometimes people think they have to do big things in order to make change. But if each one would light a candle we’d have a tremendous light.” In 1989, a year before her death, she became the first African-American women to receive an honorary degree from Boston College. The citation read: