St. Benedict the Moor Catholic Church

In May 1874 two Benedictine priests arrived in Savannah to work with the city's African-American community and built a church four blocks north of this site. In 1889 a new building was erected here. The Society of African Missions staffed the parish from 1907 to 1968, and Franciscan Sisters operated St. Benedict's day school from 1907 until it closed in 1969 because of integration. The school's alumni include U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The sisters also staffed the orphanage established by Mother Matilda Beasley, the first African-American woman in Georgia to belong to a religious order. The current building was constructed in 1949.

Savannah, Georgia · United States