Black churches have been a mainstay in Omaha since the 1860s. One of the strongest congregations has been an African American Catholic Parish that was original segregated, has since become integrated and continues to serve North Omaha in new and dynamic ways more than a century after its founding. This is a history of the St. Benedict the Moor Catholic Church in North Omaha.
Establishing a Parish
In the second decade of the 20th century, a determined Jesuit priest named Rev. Francis Cassilly decided start a “mission to the Negroes” in the Near North Side. Apparently, Blacks wanted to go to Omaha’s Catholic churches because they kept showing up at Sacred Heart, St. John’s and Holy Family churches to worship. However, since Omaha’s parishes were strictly segregated and ethnically-oriented, and none of them would serve African Americans.
For a year starting in 1918, Father Cassilly held services for the new congregation in the chapel at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. In 1919, the Saint Benedict the Moor Catholic parish was opened as the Saint Benedict Community House at 2429 Parker Street, a modest house on the corner of 24th and Parker Streets.
Opening a Church
In 1923, Saint John African Methodist Episcopal Church, or St. John AME, sold their building at North 25th and Grant to the Jesuits. It became home to the segregated Saint Benedict the Moor parish. Located at 2423 Grant Street in the Near North Side neighborhood, the original church building was at least 30 years old when the parish was started. With the explicit purpose of Catholicizing Blacks in North Omaha, the church grew in strides. It was the era right after redlining began in the neighborhood. Black Catholics were largely respectable business operators or managers or longtime workers in nearby industries. The success of the church was immediately obvious to the diocese, and they reward St. Benedict quickly.
The parish was ambitious, and bought the corner of N. 24th and Grant Streets in 1926 with the intention of building a new church there. Father Cassilly led the congregation until 1933, and was succeeded by Father Francis Daly, and then Father Preuss. In 1943, Bishop Ryan led the 25th anniversary of the parish.
In 1958, the parish constructed a new building on the site of its original church.
Building a School
The St. Benedict School was started in 1923. Located in the church, it operated as a grade school for the next six years.
In 1929, the archbishop opened a new school next door to the church. Like its parish, the school was segregated too – but earned a dubious distinction from its insemination: Saint Benedict School was the only officially segregated school in Omaha. Even though there were several Black schools in the Omaha public school district, they were all de facto segregated; Saint Benedict’s was the only one kept that way by official edict.
From its opening, Palatine Sisters operated the grade school while Dominican Sisters ran the high school program. The Sisters of Mercy led the school for a period of time, too. Featuring 105 students in the entire school in 1943, there were 20 students in the high school.
The Omaha World-Herald reported the school had 243 primary students in 1953. The school closed permanently in 1968, and the building was repurposed as the George Bryant Community Resource Center, which continues today.
Fighting Discrimination
Starting with the lynching of Will Brown and the ensuing white riots targeting North Omaha in 1919, wave after wave of white flight left the Near North Side more and more segregated.
By the 1950s, according to Omaha writer Leo Adam Biga, parish members didn’t like its status as a segregated mission church. The members of Omaha’s civil rights activist forefront, the DePorres Club, thought it wasn’t fair, either. Working with Father Markoe from Creighton University and St. Benedict’s priest, John Killoren, the congregation to switch from being a mission to become a standard parish.
In 1953, Bishop Bergan formally changed the status of St. Benedict’s from being a mission to becoming a regular territorial parish.
The Church Today
Today, St. Benedict’s Catholic Church is among the oldest Black churches in Omaha, and continues as the only Black Catholic parish in Nebraska. Rev. Vitalis Anyanike took the lead of the parish in 2011. In 2016, the parish finished renovations to the sanctuary that are credited with revitalizing the congregation.
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MY ARTICLES ABOUT HISTORIC BLACK CHURCHES IN NORTH OMAHA
Main Article: Historic Black Churches in North Omaha
Churches: St. John’s AME Church | Mount Moriah Baptist Church | Hope Lutheran Church| Bethel AME Church | New Bethel COGIC | Zion Baptist Church | Rising Star Baptist Church | Faith Temple COGIC | Mt. Calvary Community Church | St. Benedict the Moor Catholic Parish | North 24th Street Worship Center | Greater St. Paul COGIC
Former Churches: Calvin Memorial Presbyterian Church | Hillside Presbyterian Church | St. Philip the Deacon Episcopal Church
MY ARTICLES ABOUT THE HISTORY OF CATHOLICS IN NORTH OMAHA
Parishes: St. Benedict | Sacred Heart | St. John | Holy Family | Holy Angels
People: Cathy Hughes | David Rice
Other: St. Vincent’s Home for the Aged | St. Clare’s Monastery | Creighton University | Creighton Working Girls Home
MY ARTICLES ABOUT THE HISTORY OF OMAHA’S NEAR NORTH SIDE
GROUPS: Black People | Jews and African Americans | Jews | Hungarians | Scandinavians | Chinese | Italians
EVENTS: Redlining | North Omaha Riots | Stone Soul Picnic | Native Omaha Days Festival
BUSINESSES: Club Harlem | Dreamland Ballroom | Omaha Star Office | 2621 North 16th Street | Calhoun Hotel | Warden Hotel | Willis Hotel | Broadview Hotel | Carter’s Cafe | Live Wire Cafe | Fair Deal Cafe | Metoyer’s BBQ | Skeet’s | Storz Brewery | 24th Street Dairy Queen | 1324 N. 24th St. | Ritz Theater | Alhambra Theater | 2410 Lake Street | Carver Savings and Loan Association | Blue Lion Center | 9 Center Variety Store | Bali-Hi Lounge
CHURCHES: St. John’s AME Church | Zion Baptist Church | Mt. Moriah Baptist Church | St. Philip Episcopal Church | St. Benedict Catholic Parish | Holy Family Catholic Church | Bethel AME Church | Cleaves Temple CME Church | North 24th Street Worship Center
HOMES: A History of | Logan Fontenelle Housing Projects | The Sherman | The Climmie | Ernie Chambers Court aka Strelow Apartments | Hillcrest Mansion | Governor Saunders Mansion | Memmen Apartments
SCHOOLS: Kellom | Lake | Long | Cass Street | Izard Street | Dodge Street
ORGANIZATIONS: Red Dot Athletic Club | Omaha Colored Baseball League | Omaha Rockets | YMCA | Midwest Athletic Club | Charles Street Bicycle Park | DePorres Club | NWCA | Elks Hall and Iroquois Lodge 92 | American Legion Post #30 | Bryant Resource Center | People’s Hospital | Bryant Center
NEIGHBORHOODS: Long School | Logan Fontenelle Projects | Kellom Heights | Conestoga | 24th and Lake | 20th and Lake | Charles Street Projects
INDIVIDUALS: Edwin Overall | Rev. Russel Taylor | Rev. Anna R. Woodbey | Rev. Dr. John Albert Williams | Rev. John Adams, Sr. | Dr. William W. Peebles | Dr. Craig Morris | Dr. John A. Singleton, DDS | Dr. Aaron M. McMillan | Mildred Brown | Dr. Marguerita Washington | Eugene Skinner | Dr. Matthew O. Ricketts | Helen Mahammitt | Cathy Hughes | Florentine Pinkston | Amos P. Scruggs | Nathaniel Hunter | Bertha Calloway
OTHER: 26th and Lake Streetcar Shop | Webster Telephone Exchange Building | Kellom Pool | Circus Grounds | Ak-Sar-Ben Den
MY ARTICLES ABOUT HISTORIC CHURCHES IN NORTH OMAHA
GENERAL: Directory | Black Churches | Florence Churches
METHODIST: 17th Street | Pearl Memorial UMC | St. John’s AME | Bethel AME | Cleaves Temple | Ames Avenue | Trinity | Walnut Hill | 18th Street |
BAPTIST: Mount Moriah | Zion | Immanuel |
CATHOLIC: Holy Family | St. Benedict the Moor | St. John’s | Holy Angels | Sacred Heart | St. Cecilia | St. Therese
PRESBYTERIAN: Calvin Memorial | Hillside | First United | Covenant | St. Paul
EPISCOPALIAN: St. Phillips |
COGIC: New Bethel | Faith
LUTHERAN: Hope | St. Paul | Mount Olive
OTHERS: Mt. Calvary |
RELATED: St. Clare’s Monastery | Omaha Presbyterian Theological Seminary | North Omaha Catholic Schools | Black Churches | Florence Churches | Kountze Place Churches
MY ARTICLES ABOUT THE HISTORY OF SCHOOLS IN NORTH OMAHA
GENERAL: Segregated Schools | Higher Education
PUBLIC GRADE SCHOOLS: Beechwood | Belvedere | Cass | Central Park | Dodge Street | Druid Hill | Florence | Fort Omaha School | Howard Kennedy | Kellom | Lake | Long | Miller Park | Minne Lusa | Monmouth Park | North Omaha (Izard) | Omaha View | Pershing | Ponca | Saratoga | Sherman | Walnut Hill | Webster
PUBLIC MIDDLE SCHOOLS: McMillan | Technical
PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS: North | Technical | Florence
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS: Creighton | Dominican | Holy Angels | Holy Family | Sacred Heart | St. Benedict | St. John | St. Therese
LUTHERAN SCHOOLS: Hope | St. Paul
HIGHER EDUCATION: Omaha University | Creighton University | Presbyterian Theological Seminary | Joslyn Hall | Jacobs Hall | Fort Omaha
MORE: Fort Street Special School for Incorrigible Boys | Nebraska School for the Deaf and Dumb
Listen to the North Omaha History Podcast on “The History of Schools in North Omaha” »
Elsewhere
- Black And Catholic In Omaha: A Case Of Double Jeopardy: The First Fifty Years Of St. Benedict The Moor Parish by Jack Angus (2014)
- St. Benedict Catholic Church’s official webpage
- “A Contrary Path to Social Justice, The De Porres Club and the Fight for Equality in Omaha” by Leo Adam Biga, May 1, 2010
- “Remodel is a fresh start for St. Benedict’s, the ‘mother church’ of Omaha’s black Catholics” By Blake Ursch for the Omaha World-Herald on Jan 21, 2017.
- Video – “Scrubbing Bubbles – Bryant Center Makeover“
BONUS PICS!
NorthOmahaHistory.com 
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