For The City and the Cross, inaugural Centennial Fellow Aaron Robertson interviewed dozens of parishioners, musicians, clergy, and activists—and dug through hours of archival footage to tell this story. Below is an annotated list of the men and women who lived through and have written about this exciting—and tumultuous—time in the history of the Catholic Church in America.
The Parishioners
Marjorie Gabriel-Burrow (E1, E3): Musician raised at St. Benedict the Moor who helped bring gospel into the Catholic sanctuary. Director of the committee that produced Lead Me, Guide Me, the African American Catholic hymnal (1987) and longtime music minister at St. Augustine–St. Monica.
Shirley Harris-Slaughter (E1, E2): Member of Our Lady of Victory, the only Black parish in Detroit built from the ground up, who watched the archdiocese merge her church with another in 1982—years before the larger wave of closures in 1989.
Norah Duncan IV (E1–E3): Composer, educator, and church musician raised at Sacred Heart, Detroit’s “Black Catholic cathedral.” He later directed the Detroit archdiocesan worship office and watched the 1989 closures unfold from inside the chancery.
Jackie Mahome (E1, E2): Church pianist and pioneer of Black history programming at St. Agnes in the 1960s, bringing Black musicians and spirituals into parish life.
Michelle McKinney (E1, E2): Jackie Mahome’s daughter, whose childhood awakening at St. Agnes set her on a path away from the Catholic Church.
Judith McNeeley (E1–E3): Daughter of Deacon Allen McNeeley and a member of St. Bernard parish until its 1989 closure.
Eric Blount (E2): Sacred Heart parishioner and minister mentored by Father Norm Thomas; active in Black Lay Catholics with a Vision.
Wyatt Jones III (E1, E2): Son of Wyatt Jones Jr. who grew up in St. Cecilia parish.
The Movement Builders
Deacon Allen McNeeley (E1–E3) (historical figure): The first Black ordained deacon in the Archdiocese of Detroit (1969); founder of the Intercultural Formation Center and the Ministers of Service program at St. Bernard, which trained generations of clergy and Black lay leaders.
Dr. Shawn Copeland (E1, E3): One of the world’s leading Catholic theologians, whose vocation began as a nun in Detroit; a key organizer in the early phases of the Black Catholic Movement.
Wyatt Jones Jr. (E1, E2) (historical figure): Former Black Panther turned director of the Detroit archdiocese’s Office for Black Catholic Affairs. He became a public face of the 1989 closures.
Joseph Dulin (E1) (historical figure): Principal of St. Martin de Porres High School who organized the 1970–1 protests against Catholic school closures in Detroit, including a thirteen-day occupation of the archdiocesan chancery.
The Priests
Fr. Tom Lumpkin (E1, E3): Cofounder of the Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance (DCPA) and lifelong peace activist shaped by Vatican II.
Fr. Norm Thomas (E2, E3) (heard in archival recordings): Beloved longtime pastor of Sacred Heart and cofounder of the DCPA. He led the public resistance to the 1989 closures.
Fr. Donald Archambault (E1): White priest who taught at the Intercultural Formation Center and pastored the merged Presentation–Our Lady of Victory parish.
Fr. John McKenzie (E3): A Black former Benedictine monk ordained as a priest in Detroit in 2019. After conflict with Archbishop Edward Weisenburger, he left the Roman Catholic Church in 2025.
Archdiocesan Leadership
Cardinal John Dearden (E1) (heard in archival recordings): Detroit’s archbishop from 1958 to 1980 and one of Vatican II’s most progressive participants. He ordained the city’s pioneering Black clergy.
Cardinal Edmund Szoka (E1–E3) (historical figure): Dearden’s successor, an administrator known for his financial acumen. He ordered the unprecedented closure of more than thirty Detroit churches in 1989 and then departed for a top Vatican finance post the following year.
Bishop Walter Hurley (E2, E3): Cardinal Szoka’s chief of staff.
The Organizers
Cathey DeSantis (E2, E3): A white former nun and member of Sacred Heart. She became an organizer and eventually director of the DCPA after the 1989 closures.
Frances May (E2) (heard in archival recordings): Black laywoman who co-led the Alliance for Detroit Churches and publicly criticized Cardinal Szoka for failing to consult Black Catholics about their own futures.
Steve Wasko (E3): Secular Franciscan and member of a Detroit-area antiracism coalition formed after George Floyd’s murder. He has called for two archbishops to confront structural racism in the Archdiocese of Detroit ahead of the current restructuring (2025–7).
The Witnesses
Dr. Shannen Dee Williams (E1, E3): Historian of Black Catholicism whose scholarship frames Detroit as the radical center of the national Black Catholic Movement.
Patricia Montemurri (E2, E3): Former Detroit Free Press reporter who covered the Catholic Church starting in the late 1970s, chronicled the 1989 closures as they happened, and broke the news of Cardinal Szoka’s Vatican appointment.
