The Josephites were formed in 1893 by a group of Mill Hill priests working with newly-freed Black people emancipated during the American Civil War.

With permission from the Mill Hill leaders in England and the Archbishop of Baltimore, Cardinal James Gibbons, the group established the Josephites as an independent mission society based in America and dedicated totally to the African-American cause.

1865 ushered in the period of Southern Reconstruction, during which time, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, outlawing slavery, was passed.

As a condition of readmission to the Union, the former Confederate states were required to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which granted citizenship to all people born in the U.S. regardless of race.

[3] Vaughan, with an additional commission for the work from Pope Pius IX, brought a group of his priests to Baltimore in 1871 to serve the freedmen.

As the need arose in a given diocese for black-focused ministry, they would be called in to pastor parishes, staff schools, and establish missionary posts to gain converts.

[3] The plan was approved, and a small number of the US Mill Hill priests agreed to transfer and were received by Baltimore archbishop James Gibbons to form what would begin as a diocesan institute.

Instead, black priests like Uncles were relegated to preaching tours in the Deep South, subservient parochial roles, and teaching posts at the Josephite seminary in DC.

He then married and became a successful lawyer, leaving his fortune and papers to the New York Public Library upon his death the same year as Dorsey.

[3] As the door flew open to black priests in the lead-up to the Civil Rights Movement, the Josephite order faced the possibility of changing color, causing consternation among not a few members.

One higher-up from the old guard went so far as to institute an explicitly racist policy to prevent black applications from being assessed at all; Casserly quickly called a meeting of the leadership and quashed the overreach.

[3] After a few decades of positive signs and progress (including the notable saga of oft-arrested Josephite activist Philip Berrigan), the bloody end to the Civil Rights Movement proper presented a new challenge: black radicalism.

This began in earnest with the convening of the inaugural National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus (NBCCC), held in Detroit in April 1968, shortly after King's assassination and the resultant riots.

Some of the demands made by laypeople during the period of rupture were in fact met, including the reestablishment of the permanent diaconate, an act which came largely at the behest of a Josephite priest and with a focus on the African-American community.

He is credited with starting the Catholic gospel choir movement in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, implementing in a liturgical way some of the calls for black expression that came out of the Detroit meeting.

[11] Also found in this building are the Josephite archives, widely regarded as some of the most extensive records of African-American history in the entire country.

The Josephite Pastoral Center (JPC}, also located in the seminary, remains one of the few providers of materials meant specifically for African-American Catholic ministry.

The St Joseph Seminary Library is also significant, housing a number of important artifacts and documents related to both African American and African-American Catholic history.