Two area churches will celebrate the centennial anniversary of the birthday of Sister Mary Antona Ebo during the month of April. Ebo passed away on Nov. 11, 2017 in St. Louis.
The St. Charles Lwanga Center will host a mass at noon Wednesday April 10, 2024, at the St. Josephine Bakhita Catholic Church (former St. Nicholas Catholic Church location), 701 N. 18th St. in St. Louis, 63103.
The Sister Mary Antona Ebo Centennial Committee will present “A Centennial Celebration of Sister Ebo’s Life and Legacy” at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 13, 2024, at St. Alphonsus Liguori ‘Rock’ Catholic Church, 1118 N. Grand Blvd. St. Louis, 63106. The event will also be livestreamed at www.youtube.com/@st.alphonsusliguorirockcat9707.
After converting to Catholicism at the age of 17, Sister Ebo became a pillar of service to her church and civil rights movement.
She was a prominent activist worldwide for human rights since she marched with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabama. She became a key speaker and enduring image in King’s 1965 march to Montgomery.
A native of Bloomington, Ill., she became one the first three African American members of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary in 1946. She was the only Black nun in the crowd three days after Selma authorities attacked a peaceful protest march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge on “Bloody Sunday” March 7, 1965. Among those who sustained serious injuries was future Congressman John Lewis.
Ebo, then 92, and the late Congressman John Lewis, who was 76 – met again on the campus of Washington University after Lewis delivered the 2016 Commencement speech on Friday, May 20 and relived the historic day in Selma.
Chris King of The St. Louis American wrote that as Lewis leaned over to her as she sat in a wheelchair, “They clasped one another like the survivors they are and spoke in whispers.”
“I often think of you and the other sisters who came down to Selma,” Lewis said.
These historic figures spoke with the calm modesty of the great.
“For us sisters, it was just a regular part of the job,” Ebo said, “but I thank the Lord that I was one of them.”
Lewis said he has hanging on his office wall in Washington, D.C. a photograph of nuns who came to Selma from St. Louis.
“If it were not for the sisters, some of us would not be here,” Lewis said.
They held hands. They touched one another’s scars. They thanked one another for their courage and service.
“Thank you for being here,” Lewis whispered. “Thank you for bearing witness in difficult times.”
Civil rights warriors for the past half-century, they spoke in contemporary terms.
“We have to see that there is equity in what we are doing,” Lewis said.
They spoke of the future. Ebo asked Lewis what he would do when he left Congress. Lewis said he would continue to work for justice and peace, in the United States and the world – and he did that until his death on July 17, 2020.
Two years later, Sis. Ebo became the first Black woman religious to head a hospital when she was named administrator of St. Clare Hospital in Baraboo, Wisconsin. She helped found and later served as president of the National Black Sisters’ Conference. Her trailblazing career in civil rights, hospital management and ministry has earned her a wide range of awards, honorary degrees and speaking opportunities.
One of her proudest moments was in 2010 when she received a kiss on the cheek from President Barack Obama. It was a thank you for her help in electing him the first Black U.S. president in 2008, and for her decades of working for peace and justice.
Shortly after a then-Ferguson police officer shot and killed Michael Brown on Aug. 9, 2014, Sister Ebo had a friend drive her to the site of his death so she could again bear witness.
In addition to her many honors, Ebo received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Notre Dame University in Indiana on May 19, 2013.