The following from the _Brooklyn Tablet_, January 13, 1917, will
interest students of the Negro Church:
"Rev. Charles Randolph Uncles, of Baltimore, Maryland, received
congratulatory messages from all parts of the country last month,
the occasion being the twenty-fifth anniversary of his
ordination. Father Uncles was the first colored man of the United
States to be raised to the priesthood, and he has had a brilliant
career during the quarter century that has elapsed since Cardinal
Gibbons ordained him in the Baltimore Cathedral on December 19,
1891.
"Father Uncles has done much missionary work and is at present
engaged in teaching Latin and French in Epiphany College,
Walbrook, Maryland, the preparatory school for St. Joseph's
Seminary, where young men are trained to carry on work among the
negroes of the United States.
"Father Uncles was the first negro in this country to be
ordained. He reached his goal after years of preliminary study
which led to his taking a course in St. Joseph's and St. Mary's
Seminaries. He was graduated with honors and went to Epiphany
College as teacher as soon as he left St. Mary's. He has done
much to put the negro missions on a thorough working basis, and
he has the admiration of Cardinal Gibbons. Father Uncles was born
in Baltimore November 6, 1859, and his parents and grandparents
were free negroes. His father was a machinist and worked for
years with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. His mother is still
living.
"He was baptized at St. Francis Xavier's Church, Calvert and
Pleasant streets, Baltimore, and there he recently said his
jubilee Mass. He studied at St. Francis's parish school and in
the public schools. He worked as printer and journalist from 1874
to 1879 and then as printer. In 1880 he began as teacher in the
Baltimore county schools, and in 1883 entered St. Hyacinth's
College, Quebec, to study. He returned to St. Joseph's Seminary
in 1888."
The same paper said on this date in its editorial columns:
"Congratulations to Father Uncles, of Baltimore, a priest, a
gentleman, a scholar--and a negro. He has just celebrated the
twenty-fifth anniversary of his entrance into the Order of Abel,
Abraham and Melchizedek.
"Father Uncles was the first of his race in this country to be
raised to the dignity of the priesthood. His was a unique
position. The eyes of the American world were upon him. Though
one of God's anointed, he was a "colored man," and thus more was
demanded of him than of any of his white brothers. At the end of
twenty-five years, he can, with his gentle good nature, laugh at
the world's scrutiny.
"For Father Uncles is gentle--a gentleman. In conversation with
him, in association with him, one never thought of the color of
his body. The beautiful whiteness of his soul shone so in the
kindly lightning of his eyes, the courtesy of his speech, the
correctness of his manner.
"He was, and is, a scholar--not merely book-learned, for he was
one of the first three in a class of sixty in Saint Mary's
Seminary, but the man of parts that bespeak the student.
"Yet he is a negro--of that long-suffering race that we first
damned into slavery and then freed into servitude. But a man's a
man for a' that, and from time to time the negro is proving that.
Father Uncles was a pioneer in that line. For emancipation's sake
he will not object to this projection of himself upon America's
mental screen."
In connection with the sketch given above the following account of the
work of the Catholics at Van de Vyver College, Richmond, Virginia,
from 1885 to the present time should also be interesting.
Among the many signs of the progress of the colored people in the city
of Richmond is the Van de Vyver College on North First street, which
is equipped with all modern improvements, and has accommodations for
five hundred pupils.
This elegant plant was erected at the sole expense of the Catholics
who, abreast of the times, met at every turn the requirements of an
aspiring class of colored boys and girls.
It was not erected with the idea of drawing the attention or of
eliciting the applause of the people of Richmond; it is an institution
which, by its growth and development, has marked time with the demands
of the younger generation of the colored people, whose endeavor is to
follow the higher ideals as they are set before them.
This grand building, with its large auditorium, now covers the site,
together with additional area, of a former two-roomed schoolhouse,
which thirty years back first gave the Catholic Sisters from Mill
Hill, England, a place and opportunity to show their zeal for, and
their interest in, the future welfare of the colored youth of the
principal city of the Old Dominion.
These Sisters are known as the Sisters of St. Francis of Baltimore.
They have the privilege of being the first of all the white
sisterhoods in this country to take up the work of teaching colored
children exclusively. Today there are many colored citizens who are
not backward in their praise of the successful and unselfish efforts
of these same good sisters, whose energetic endeavors have led many a
colored boy and girl to a happy and prosperous career.
On the college grounds is an excellently equipped kindergarten, in
which many pupils, who later on were graduated from the commercial and
academic courses, made their first start.
Special classes in music, fancy needlework, Latin and French are also
taught to those desiring to pursue such lines.
For the working boys and young men, there is a night session, wherein
is given a theoretical and practical knowledge of the automobile. Many
a young man has gone forth from this class qualified as an expert
mechanician and chauffeur.
The church adjoining the college, attendance at which is of course
optional, affords all the opportunity of gaining a knowledge of the
doctrine of the Catholic Church. Affiliated with this church are four
flourishing societies, one for the men called the Holy Name Society;
one for the women called The Sodality of the Mother of Jesus; one for
men and women called The League of the Sacred Thirst--a Temperance
Society; and one for the boys and girls called the Knights and Ladies
of the Cross. The members of these societies are very faithful in the
duties required of them, and hence give great edification to the
people of both races.
This whole plant, it is needless to say, is an inspiring spectacle to
the very many colored men and women, who pass up and down North First
street. They have reason to point to it with pride. They appreciate
all that it represents to them. It matters not of what denomination
the people may be, Catholic or Non-Catholic, words of the highest
commendation are freely and generously given by all alike.