While Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles are all atwitter about the coming installation of one of their own as the region’s Roman Catholic archbishop, we Black Catholics have something to look forward to as well — the first African-American saint. Late last month, Pope Benedict XVI signed the decree confirming Vatican officials’ recommendation that the sainthood cause of Mother Henriette Delille be advanced. By his decree, the pope declared that Mother Henriette, a freeborn woman of African descent in 19th century New Orleans, had lived a life of “heroic virtues.” Her cause for sainthood was unanimously endorsed by the U.S. bishops in 1997, and once a miracle is attributed to her intercession, she can be beatified and put on the fast track toward becoming our first African-American saint.
Mother Henriette, who was born in 1812 and died in 1862, founded, in 1842, the Sisters of the Holy Family, a congregation of Black nuns who cared for the poor and taught slaves and freed Blacks in Louisiana how to read and write during a time when state law forbade such activities, declaring educating Black people to be a crime punishable by death or life imprisonment. Today, the Sisters of the Holy Family operate schools and homes for the elderly throughout Louisiana and in other states, and they have a mission in Belize.

TAKING IT TO THE BANK — The NAACP came to an agreement last week with Wells Fargo Bank in which the civil rights group will work with the bank to improve access of minority neighborhoods to the bank’s best loans rather than have Blacks and Latinos straddled with loans destined to fail. In return for this collaborative endeavor, the NAACP dropped the lawsuit it filed against Wells Fargo in 2007 in which it charged the bank with deliberately steering Black borrowers into subprime loans while providing loans with lower fees and interest rates to its White customers. While the bank admitted no wrongdoing, it agreed to the NAACP’s review of Wells Fargo’s lending practices and its resultant recommendations “to further improve credit availability to African-Americans and diverse businesses and consumers, to further assist borrowers facing foreclosures and to further promote financial literacy and education.”
Alleging violations of the Fair Housing and Equal Credit Opportunity acts, the NAACP filed suits against many lending institutions when the subprime meltdown started three years ago. Most of the subprime companies have gone out of business, but the NAACP suits are continuing against JP Morgan Chase, Citibank and some other institutions, and negotiations are under way with Bank of America.

RED SODA WATER PARTY LINE — My good friend Tavis Smiley is really getting on my nerve. He, as well as some members of the Congressional Black Caucus — some of whom are close to home — keep snapping at my president, Barack Obama, about his failure, in their eyes, to implement a “Black agenda.” What is a “Black agenda?!” A promise of chitlins in every pot?! While battling rabid racist attacks at every move he makes, Obama is pursuing an “American agenda” that is benefiting everybody, including Whites who hate him because he’s Black and Blacks who hate him because he’s not Black enough. In the 16 months Obama has been in office, his administration has provided more benefits to Blacks since the posting of the Emancipation Proclamation, especially in the area of education.

The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, which Obama signed last month, is a boon for financially strapped college students of all colors in this country, and it specifically supports African-Americans’ success in higher education. The act significantly increases Pell Grants, extending that educational financial aid program to everybody from year 2013 to 2017, including to approximately 200,000 more African-American students by the 2020 academic year. The act revises and expands the income-based student loan program between 2014 and 2020 to 1.2 million borrowers, of which 222,000 are expected to be African-Americans.

In addition, the act increases support for Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) so they can handle the challenges of shrinking endowments, decreasing state appropriations, deteriorating facilities and increasing costs. Toward that end, the act provides $850 million for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and $150 million for Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs) in mandatory funding over the next 10 years.

I have more to say about Obama’s American agenda, but in the meantime, Tavis and them need to shut up.

THE INGLEWOOD REPORT — Videographer Felix J. Washington and his lawyer filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission last month charging the city of Inglewood and Councilwoman Judy Dunlap with conflict of interest in the awarding of a continuous telecommunications contract to Milton Brown. He sent the commission last week a piece of Dunlap’s mayoral campaign literature she mailed to Inglewood voters for the upcoming election which had the city of Inglewood’s seal on it and the Inglewood City Hall as its return address!

DATEBOOK — April is National Autism Month and on Friday the Special Needs Network will hold its fourth annual Tools for Transformation Conference which will provide, free of charge, workshop training sessions and information and resources for parents of children diagnosed with autism or other developmental disorders. Under the theme, “Leveraging Resources for Change,” the conference will kick off at 9 a.m. with a breakfast at the California Science Center in Exposition Park, followed by a daylong (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.) conference on Saturday at the Junior Blind of America, 5300 Angeles Vista Blvd. The event is sponsored by state Sen. Curren Price and Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, with Speaker Emeritus Karen Bass keynoting Friday’s breakfast. Information: (323) 389-7100.

The Los Angeles Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant will hold a community town hall meeting Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Southern California Library, 6120 S. Vermont Ave., to develop strategies to end citizen killings by cops in this state.

My favorite singer, Windy Barnes Farrell, will be featured in a concert Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Lucy Florence Cultural Center in Leimert Park. She will be singing her favorite jazz and R&B songs.

AND FINALLY — I am so, so sorry to report the death of one of my oldest and dearest friends, the Rev. T.M. Chambers Jr. He was the first Baptist preacher I ever knew and liked. He was cool (which was what we use to say back in the day.) Rest in peace, my friend. … Some more bad news about my friends: Gospel greats Andrae Crouch and Walter Hawkins are both ill. Please pray for their recovery.