Black History Beneath a Local Basilica in Norfolk, VA

NORFOLK-  A Norfolk Black Catholic church has sustained the community through service for centuries and even today throws out lifelines to the needy 

Since the late 1700s,  the religious community that started The Basilica of St. Mary of The Immaculate Conception had a mission to lead parishioners to freedom and salvation through God’s word. 

Originally founded in 1791 by the French fleeing the French Revolution, they were joined by Hatiatins fleeing the slave revolt in Haiti.  

It was a complicated confluence of cultures, but within fifty years, the formerly segregated church began allowing Black Catholics to sit in a designated area. 

The current building, with its ornate spire, is Virginia’s most elaborate expression of the early “Gothic Revival,” according to Virginia’s historic register, with a “decidedly French character,” that was completed in 1858.

The Basillica’s underground drainage system was probably used as a portion of the Underground Railroad. 

Today, the only African American Basilica in the country has a majority Black congregation, also known as the Black Basilica. 

Today, the mission continues to serve the Black community, which represents 40.7 percent of Norfolk’s 236.973 population, where about 17 percent overall live in poverty, versus the higher rate of poverty in the Black population at 24.52%. That’s about 2.5 times the rate of poverty of white residents. 

That is 21,544 real individuals who need help. One in five people in the city lives with severe housing problems. Nearly one in five children live in poverty.

The Basilica serves hot meals for its soup kitchen, gives out food from its pantry, and provides financial literacy and other services.  

For 44 years, the soup kitchen has served 800-900 people yearly, and the food pantry has provided up to 200 families with fresh produce on a weekly basis.

About 150 families are given food from the pantry every month, including fresh fruits, meats and vegetables on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. Frcelle Drayton, food ministry coordinator said.

On a recent Monday, tables, shipping carts holding vegetables, and folded chairs were scattered throughout the church ballroom in the basement of the historic two-story Roman-inspired built Basilica.  

Refrigerators were packed with pre-cooked meals. Three styrofoam plates hold freshly cooked string beans on the metal counters to be served with cooked ham. 

Aisles filled with seasonal fruits, vegetables, desserts, and meats were displayed throughout the ballroom to provide families with a “grocery store” essence during the food pantry.

Crates and boxes filled with frozen meals, packaged salads, and Halloween goodies surrounded the four refrigerators in the food pantry's kitchen.

“We are finished for that Saturday, about 1:30 at the latest because on that day, that’s when the largest amount of people and families would show up. And that’s probably between about 150 to 175 families that would show up,” Drayton said. 

For families to receive the groceries, they must first provide their names and the total number of family members so providers can keep track of the quantity of items that are given out.

Adults seek more assistance with groceries and meals on average than elders whose grandchildren often take care of them within the Norfolk and Tidewater area according to the Coordinator of the Food Ministry.

“ The senior and adult population is about 30% The adult population is probably about 35- 40%. And the rest of them are children,” Drayton said 

Homeless individuals, however, don’t receive the same goods that other families receive because they have nowhere to cook. 

“ They have all types of foods that they can regularly eat without any can openers and heat,” Drayton said

About 125 personal hygiene products are packaged for the homeless during the month of December.

“Once a year, our children put together hygiene bags for the homeless. They also put together sock and T-shirt bags for the homeless that’s usually done in the middle of December,” Drayton said.  

Thanksgiving food baskets that consist of $20 gift cards, desserts, canned goods, and produce, are the most popular basket that is given out during the month of November.

“Trust me, we will pass them out on the 22nd of this month and they will all be taken,” Drayton said. 

For the homeless, the soup kitchen hosts a Thanksgiving dinner a day before the holiday.

Before other local pantries opened their doors, students from Norfolk State University and Tidewater Community College regularly made visits to the pantry.

“Before TCC had their pantry, I’d say that we would get 10%-15% of their students, but that's about it,” Drayton said.

Regardless of someone's race, sexuality, or gender, no one is ever left behind on a meal. 

“If you are hungry, we feed you. We don't ask any questions,” Drayton said 

The church partners with the Foodbank of Southern Virginia and the Eastern Shore also located in Norfolk, VA.

The church also takes regular offerings to pay for fresh meats for the food giveaways. 

However, if there isn’t enough money coming in, the quantity of items has to be reduced.

“ Say for one week we got $2,000, trust me, I am not spending that whole $2,000. I’m going to hold back as much as I can. If I can't hold back at least half, I’m going to hold back 80% of it. Because I don’t know what the following week is going to get me,” Drayton said.

Beyond the food pantry and soup kitchen, the Catholic Church educates the community with financial literacy classes, legal aid, and economic assistance. Legal aid comes every Wednesday at no cost to clients. 

“They don’t deal with anything that’s criminal in nature but civil, they do that. We have a group come in that would assist people with getting food stamps and also helping them if they are eligible for SSI,” Drayton said.

Although the church serves those who are homeless and the communities of Tidewater, homelessness can look different to everyone.

“ Some of them are not homeless because, you know, they're homeless because of their job, they’re homeless because of something happening in their life that causes that. Some are working and have a home but still can’t buy food,” said Todd Washington, Business Manager of The Basilica of St. Mary of The Immaculate Conception.

Those who are being served by the food pantry say they feel a sense of trust and comfort with the volunteers and administration of the church.

“ You get to know them, they get to know you. And then, sometimes they help when we need a little help, they’ll help and take things out of the trucks,” Washington said.

Whenever a plate is served to a family, it represents service to Christ, said volunteer Judy Watford.

“ I hope when I speak to people, talk to people, and they listen to me and respect them, then I know that I’m serving Christ,” she said.

Another volunteer is there because the congregation helped feed her family when she was growing up. 

 “ It was ten of us, five boys and five girls, and my mom and dad. I know we would not have made it if people didn’t serve us and if people didn't help us,” Linda Sanders said. Sanders sisters said, because of the help, she didn’t realize they were poor growing up.

“My sister said not long ago after my parents left,” she said, “ We were poor that we didn’t even know that we were poor.” Because we were given and we didn't have much to give,” Sanders said.  

It’s not always easy to serve God, Sanders said.

“But I try to work at it every day.”

In 1961, the Josephites, a Catholic community of priests and Brothers, merged the St. Joseph congregation with St. Mary to serve the spiritual needs of Norfolk’s Black community, according to the church website. 

But it was not until 2014, during a renovation, that the full extent of the church’s service to the Black community was revealed.

Beyond the food pantry walls and soup kitchen doors, The Basilica of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, a tunnel was discovered where it is believed enslaved workers walked to their freedom. 

“They were drilling to take the floor out and they found crypts buried in the church and a tunnel,” food bank manager Todd Washington said.

The 3-foot wide flat surfaced tunnel is made of bricks that formed a tall arch under the church. The floor was smoothed with dirt and minerals that created an easy “flow for water,” according to Larson. 

The drainage tunnel was created in the 19th century and reached all the way to the Elizabeth River. When dry, slaves were able to use it to escape. 

Cassandra Newby-Alexander, a Norfolk historian, told the Chesapeake Bay magazine that the Catholic congregation may have cooperated with the predominantly Black members of the Colored Methodist Churches and First Baptist Churches in Norfolk.

“If a pipeline/tunnel ran the length of the black community to an access point on the waterfront, it is entirely expected that people would use this pipe/tunnel as a portal to travel in secret and beyond the gaze of the numerous night watchmen who were hired to prevent escapes,” Alexander told the magazine.

Before the church’s administration building and parking lot, the church faced a body of water that existed alongside the tunnel. 

“Because these walls are hollow, there's voids behind them. They could've entered the tunnel and went out straight to the water,” Larson said. 

One of the six founders of the Basilica and the founder of the first African American Oblate Sisters of  Providence of Ordered Nuns in Baltimore, Maryland, Mary Elizabeth Lange was one of the former slaves who walked within the cave to search for freedom. 

When the current church was first renovated in 1982, it was believed that the tunnel and crypts were discovered by constructors. However, no one ever mentioned what they’d seen underground. 

Unfortunately, the construction workers sealed the opening of the tunnel because, according to visitors and tourists, they weren't able to walk through or see where the tunnel began underground.

Although the tunnel is no longer available to the public eye, another piece of history was discovered through an underground gravesite.

It’s believed in the church’s history that the cemetery belonged to St. Patrick’s Church, the Basilica’s former church, in 1791. 

“At that time, It wasn’t illegal to be able to build a church over a cemetery,” Larson said 

When the construction workers continued to remove the tiles from the floor, up to 100 bodies were found under the sanctuary, and 17 to 21 bodies were found near the main entrance.  

“They were all faced east and west. That has to do with African Culture,” Larson said. 

In African Culture, caskets face East and West because it is believed that when Jesus comes back to Earth, the bodies will rise to follow Jesus in His direction according to Christianity Stack Exchange website.    

During slavery, it was illegal for slaves to gather to bury their loved ones because the slave masters didn’t want the slaves to fight or turn against their owners for what they’ve done according to A Good Goodbye website.   

Because of this law, some slaves decided to remove their loved ones from the underground to take them as they would escape to freedom according to Larson. 

“Out of the 17 caskets they decided to only exhume four of the bodies. Two had remains and two didn’t,” Larson said. 

When the construction workers drilled through the tile, it was evident that the majority of the caskets shared something in common, they maintained its fixture and white stone. 

Burying a loved one in a white casket symbolizes a sense of peace, purity, and innocence when an elder or a child has transitioned according to The Sullivan-King Mortuary & Crematory located in Anderson, South Carolina.   

In one of the burials, the body was so long that it couldn’t fit in the Triangle Atlantic casket.

“There is a gentleman in there and he was too long for the casket because his head was kind of bent to the side,” Larson said.    

An archeologist will reveal to the congregation the DNA of the remains during mass on Friday, November 22nd, 2024. 

The mission continues.