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Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church: Atlanta's First African-American Catholic Church

Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church: Atlanta's First African-American Catholic Church is a Georgia historical marker in Fulton County, dedicated 2013.

At Our Lady of Lourdes Church off 25 Boulevard NE- Atlanta.

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Our Lady of Lourdes was established in November 1912 by Father Ignatius Lissner as the first African-American Catholic church in Atlanta. Father Lissner received funding for the church and parish school from Mother Katharine Drexel, a Pennsylvania heiress who founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (SBS), an order established to serve and support African and Native Americans. During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, Lourdes parishioners, including SBS nuns, participated in protest activities as part of the Old Fourth Ward community. The SBS staffed Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School until 1974. The school closed in 2001 when the Archdiocese of Atlanta could no longer provide funding. The building is now the Katharine Drexel Community Center.

TodayHistorical map

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Northwestern University Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1874 · Military Operations of the Atlanta Campaign. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1892 · Atlanta, Georgia (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1895 · Atlanta, Georgia (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1910 · National Forests with related projects and data (Northwestern University Libraries)
Historical map (Stanford Libraries)

Military Operations of the Atlanta Campaign, 1874, covering the location of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church: Atlanta's First African-American Catholic Church, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Military Operations of the Atlanta Campaign, 1874, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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This historical marker is part of the Georgia Historical Marker Program and was erected by the Georgia Historical Society. Marker texts and locations come from the Society's own marker database.

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On the National Register nearby

Places within about 300 feet of this marker that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A nearby listing is not always the marker's own subject.