How Did Daniel Rudd Impact The Catholic Church

African American Catholic journalist, publisher, and civil rights advocate Daniel Rudd (1854–1933) had a significant impact on the American Catholic Church in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Rudd was raised Catholic at the Proto-Cathedral of St. Joseph whilst born and raised as a slave. He lived on a plantation close to the cathedral. The church, where Daniel would be baptized, was described as a place of equality where the only kind of "discrimination" was the race of who got to confession first. Rudd had 11 siblings, all of whom had Catholic church baptisms. After the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, setting Rudd free. Rudd then followed his brother to Springfield, Ohio, where he received

Rudd's career as a journalist began at the Sunday News. He worked as a printer, reporter, and editor there and was passionate about pursuing a “Frederick Douglass-like” fight for the justification of African Americans' civil rights. He believed that the press had a significant impact on African American advancement. Rudd also believed that editors and writers could influence and educate Catholic, corporate, and civic leaders.
Rudd's first step in beginning his journey was accepting an invitation to speak before the Apostolate of the Press in New York. He then published The Ohio Tribune, the first African American newspaper published by the African American community in 1885. Only a year later,

He used the American Catholic Tribune, his newspaper, as a vehicle to raise awareness about injustices like racial oppression, racial violence, and economic injustice. In short, he believed everyone was created equally and in God’s image and likeness. He believed strongly in The Catechism of the Catholic Church’s teaching on Equality and Differences among Men; “Every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God's design” (Catholic 523). He was a passionate supporter of the NAACP and actively engaged in campaigns to end the widespread violence and discrimination that African Americans experience in the South and across the nation.
Beyond his advocacy, Rudd made additional contributions to the Catholic Church. He was also a firm supporter of African American Catholics' academic and spiritual progress. He established a number of institutions, including the first African American Catholic Monastery and the first African American Catholic School in the South. He also established a number of parishes and religious orders. Through these organizations, he worked to give African American Catholics a solid religious and educational foundation, laying the groundwork for a more active and progressive Church in the years to