Talk by Sister Cora Marie Billings titled: "Five Lessons From a Life of Anti-Racist Activism"

Sister Cora Marie Billings has given talks all over the world, has been an activist for almost 60 years, and specializes in campus activism. She will be presenting a talk titled "Five Lessons From a Life of Anti-Racist Activism".

Born in 1939, Billing’s life is full of firsts:

* first African-American woman to enter a catholic community in Philadelphia (Sisters of Mercy, 1956)
* first African American to teach at an all-white grade school in Levittown, Pa. (1961)
* first African American to teach in a Catholic high school in Philadelphia (where she developed the Black Studies Club in
the late 1960s)
* first African-American woman to work as a campus minister at Virginia State University
* first African-American nun to lead a US Catholic parish (St. Elizabeth Parish in North Richmond, Va.)

Billings co-founded the National Black Sisters’ Conference in 1968 and has since served as its Executive Director. She led the Diocese of Richmond’s Office for Black Catholics for 25 years and was the deputy director of the Human Rights Council for the state of Virginia from 2007 to 2010. Among many accomplishments and awards (see attached CV), Billings has received honorary doctorates from Gwynedd Mercy University, St. Joseph University, and Villanova University. Currently, she is a full-time volunteer.

File Attachments: Sister_Cora_Marie_Billings_poster

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