Father Lawrence E. Lucas (1933 – 18 April 2020) was an American
Catholic priest, activist, educator, and author.
He was the author of ''Black Priest White Church: Catholics and Racism'', and In the 1970s became the first
African-American pastor of Chapel of the Resurrection Roman Catholic Church in
Harlem,
New York City.
He was also a co-founding member of the December 12th Movement (D12), a
Black liberation theologian and an advocate for
prison reform.
Early life
Father Lucas was born at Harlem Hospital in 1933 and raised in Harlem. His early education was in Harlem at P.S. 39, All Saints School at
All Saints Church (Manhattan)
The Church of All Saints is a historic former Catholic church in the Archdiocese of New York, located at 47 East 129th Street, at the corner of Madison Avenue in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.
Built from 1883 to 1886 p.536 ...
, and St. Marks. He is quoted as saying that his activism comes from his mother. His mother fought against greedy landlords in their Harlem tenement.
Career
Education
Father Lucas studied priesthood at
Saint Joseph's Seminary in
Croton Falls, New York, before being ordained in 1959 by
Cardinal Spellman
Francis Joseph Spellman (May 4, 1889 – December 2, 1967) was an American bishop and cardinal of the Catholic Church. From 1939 until his death in 1967, he served as the sixth Archbishop of New York; he had previously served as an auxiliary ...
at
St. Peter's Church in New York City.
Priesthood
At Resurrection parish in
Manhattan, he served as parochial vicar from 1961 to 1964, and from 1964 to 1966 was parochial vicar at St. Charles Borromeo in Harlem. He then did postgraduate work at the
University of Indianapolis from 1966 to 1968, and was also a communications consultant for the
archdiocese of New York from 1968 to 1969.
He co-founded the
National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus in 1968, remaining active in the resulting Black Catholic Movement and advocating for Black priests to have decision-making power within the dioceses and in the Black community.
Pastorate
In 1969, his advocacy paid and off and he returned to Resurrection to pastor the parish for 24 years, from 1969 to 1992.
During this pastorate, in 1983, Father Lucas participated in Police Misconduct: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice of the Committee on the Judiciary, in the
US House of Representatives in
Washington, D.C.
In 1987, Father Lucas along with Viola Plummer,
, Coltrane Chimurenga founded the December 12th Movement which was the outgrowth of the December 12 Coalition responding to violent attacks and murder of Black people in New York state.
Father Lucas was a character witness for Yusef Salaam during the
Central Park trial in New York City, and was one of the community organizers for the 1990
Church Avenue boycott in Brooklyn.
Chaplaincy
He served as chaplain at
North General Hospital in
East Harlem
East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, F ...
from 1992 to 1994, at
Rikers Island
Rikers Island is a island in the East River between Queens and the Bronx that contains New York City's main jail complex. Named after Abraham Rycken, who took possession of the island in 1664, the island was originally under in size, but has ...
prison from 1994 to 2008, and at the
New York City Department of Correction from 2008 to 2009.
Father Lucas also served on
WBAI's Local Station Board.
Retirement
In 2010, he retired as senior priest of Our Lady of Lourdes in New York City, after being in the role for a year.
Other work
Lucas was for many years a host on the Manhattan Neighborhood Network television show Community Cop in New York City.
Father Lucas was also President of Community Board 10 in Harlem for fifteen years, and was the first vice president of Community School Board No. 5 in New York City.
References
External links
Father Lawrence Lucas Interviewed by Paul McIntoshFather Lucas
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lucas, Lawrence E.
Activists for African-American civil rights
African-American Roman Catholic priests
African-American Catholics
2020 deaths
1933 births
American Roman Catholic priests
20th-century African-American people
Roman Catholic activists
21st-century African-American people