Briefly Reviewed: September 2026

Catholic Heroes of Civil and Human Rights: 1800s to the Present

By Matthew Daniels and Roxanne King

Publisher: Ignatius

Pages: 207

Price: $18.95

Review Author: Elizabeth Hanink

Despite the recent reckoning in which several Catholic religious orders have engaged, and the justifiable resentment many experience when hearing of past racial and economic injustices, there is ample evidence that these sins were not universal. Many Catholics throughout history recognized the dignity of all men and women and have been willing to fight for it. Some, like Dorothy Day or Mother Katharine Drexel, are well known. Others are much more obscure, and it is they who give significance to Catholic Heroes of Civil and Human Rights: 1800s to the Present.

Authors Matthew Daniels and Roxanne King have chosen an international group, religious and lay, contemporary and somewhat more removed, to illustrate the tremendous power of individual action. This is not to say the heroes did not act in concert with others. Rather, they held themselves responsible first and then, in some cases, by example and persuasion, led others to join the effort. The device of emphasizing a particular trait found in each person, and grouping the heroes under these trait categories, helps the reader appreciate that it is not just one personality type or character that can accomplish great things. The authors define each “virtue” and then cite a pertinent Church document; entries are succinct and highlight just what moved the person to respond to Christ’s teaching.

Not every featured hero is a canonized saint, and the inclusion of the less-than-perfect is another strength of the book. People living ordinary lives can and often do exemplify virtues that will never catch the attention of their local bishop, much less the Vatican, and yet the example of the uncelebrated can inspire us to reach further than we might have thought possible. Often these quiet heroes are not as easy to dismiss as someone who has, finally perhaps, enjoyed public acclaim.

Take, for instance, Paul and Pat Bokulich. Together they braved hostile crowds, tear gas, the Ku Klux Klan, and incarceration to help bring about voting rights in the Deep South. For three years they lived in a one-and-a-half-room shack among sharecroppers, working to establish farm co-ops and free elections. Their first child was just the second white baby to be born in Selma’s Good Samaritan Hospital at a time when medical care was strictly segregated by race. Success did not come quickly, but in time the marches, boycotts, and voter registration efforts were fruitful. In 1970 Thomas Gil­more became the first black sheriff to be elected in Greene County, a black-majority region. A court case, Paul Bokulich v. Jury Commission of Greene County, led the U.S. Supreme Court to ban “voter suppression-type laws” that had prevented black citizens from serving on grand juries in Alabama. In interviews for the book, Bokulich, now in his 80s, reflects that “the dignity of the human person has been able to advance because of the way the civil rights movement of that era was conducted…. Violence was willing to be suffered, but not to be given.”

Somewhat more current and well known is Sr. Jean Pimental, director of Catholic Charities in the Rio Grande Valley. Her experience convinced her it is possible to keep the southern U.S. border safe in a humanitarian way. She reports being humbled by the actions of both refugees and volunteers, and her work in partnership with U.S. Customs and Border Protection allows her to see the compassion many officers bring to their work. She has also seen conversions from opposition to support after people witness what she and her coworkers are trying to do. “Those simple things we take for granted mean so much and give hope to someone who’s just arriving and has nothing. Those gentle gestures of kindness are a blessing to us all…. Seeing all this is why when I was asked once what it is we’re doing here, I said ‘Restoring human dignity — that’s what we’re doing.’”

Nicholas Black Elk and Julia Greeley, one a Lakota Sioux and the other a former slave, both braved racism and prejudice to preach God’s Word at the turn of the 20th century. They faced hatred with love and never gave up hope in the power of prayer. Julia had unflagging devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and every first Friday of the month trekked to all 20 of Denver’s firehouses to give Sacred Heart badges and Apostleship of Prayer pamphlets to the firemen. Although she could not read, she knew both the badges and the literature, her “tickets to heaven,” and encouraged praying and offering the day to Christ. Black Elk, a survivor of the Battle of Little Bighorn and Wounded Knee, was a catechist to his people and saw Jesus as the answer to a collapsing way of life. Only Christ could fully heal a world where the buffalo were being killed and Lakota traditions were being destroyed. Living a life full of hope, he preached the Gospel while striving to save the old ways.

We are all called by the Gospel to change the world, each in our own way. What wonderful company we have in the group of Catholics selected for this book. Each responded to God’s call as a Catholic, and a full biography isn’t needed to tell of their heroism and inspire us with their deeds. Sometimes a brief introduction is all it takes to spur us on just a bit more in our own response to God’s call.

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