text: I think you make an important point.  It would be a mistake to portray the random connections of Catholicism to individual African Americans as some sign that Catholicism played an important role in overcoming slavery and racism.  It played far less a role that many Protestant faiths.  
  
  While I appreciate knowing of artists I haven't heard of before and seeing what I can of their work, learning of their lives, I hope this is not an attempt to connect institutional Catholicism to the achievements of people who overcame obstacles an old white Catholic women like me can barely imagine.
  
  Why is it necessary to find Catholic connections to the new Smithsonian African-American culture and history museum?  The achievements are those of African-Americans regardless of, and sometimes in spite of, their faith.  
  
  What matters now is that the Church that stood too quietly while slavery and racism devastated millions does not stand silently now while racism continues.  Where are the bishops now?