Sister Thea Bowman, the granddaughter of enslaved people, was born Bertha Bowman on December 29, 1937, in Yazoo City, Mississippi. Shortly after her birth, her family moved to Canton, Mississippi.
For the past 36 years, the Sister Thea Bowman Foundation has offered life-changing opportunities to young African Americans facing oppression, trauma, poverty, and hopelessness—those with their backs against the wall.
A member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration (FSPA), Sister Thea devoted her life to celebrating and sharing the richness of African American Catholic heritage and spirituality through song, prayer, teaching, and preaching. In this brief clip from her powerful June 1989 address to the U.S. Catholic Bishops on Black Catholic spirituality, she speaks to the vital role of Catholic education and how we can uplift those striving to pursue it despite financial hardship.