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Minnesota Now with Nina Moini
Cathy Wurzer and Alex Cheng

Why a St. Paul church is making reparations for racial inequality

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A few weeks ago on Minnesota Now, we heard from the writer of a new History Theatre play called “Not in Our Neighborhood.” The play tells the story of Nellie and William Francis, a Black couple that faced racist harassment and threats when they moved into the all-white Mac-Groveland neighborhood of St. Paul in 1924.

Nellie Francis, in 1924.
Nellie Francis, in 1924. Image is from Foster, Mary Dillon, Who’s Who Among Minnesota Women (1924), 111.
Courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society

Around that same time, Pilgrim Lutheran Church was founded in the same neighborhood — less than a mile away from the Francis home.

And now, nearly 100 years later, the predominantly white congregation is undertaking a reparations project to atone for its “tacit participation in the system of housing segregation.”

The project is called “In My Neighborhood.” Katia McDonough is a member of the congregation who is helping lead it, and she joined host Cathy Wurzer to talk about the project.

McDonough said that she and fellow members of the congregation were inspired to act after watching a reading of “Not in Our Neighborhood.”

The Pilgrim Lutheran reparations project is focused on racism in the housing system because white parishioners at the church have benefitted from the same system of housing segregation that has hurt Black people like the Francises for generations, McDonough said.

She said that she and her fellow parishioners see themselves as “part of a line” that stretches back in history, and it’s their duty to write the wrongs from that past.

McDonough encouraged listeners to reflect on the injustices they see and ask themselves how they personally can listen and act with conviction.

Pilgrim Lutheran is fundraising for Model Cities, an organization in the historic Rondo neighborhood working on housing access in the Black community.

The drive comes as Pilgrim Lutheran celebrates its centennial. McDonough hopes it’s the beginning of a new, more just century of faith at the church.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

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