Charles Prejean Sr., activist and Black Catholic leader, laid to rest in Atlanta

Charles O. Prejean Sr. was funeralized this week in Atlanta, honoring his more than six decades of service in the Black Catholic community and as an advocate for civil rights and other African-American causes. He was 84 years old and no cause of death was released.

A Mass of Christian burial was celebrated Tuesday at the Cathedral of Christ the King by Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington. The African-American prelate served as Archbishop of Atlanta from 2005 to 2019, which included the bulk of Prejean’s tenure as leader of the local Office of Black Catholic Ministry.

“Those offices were entrusted to men and women who were expected to promote, support, and encourage people of color to bring their gifts to the Church to support schools, social justice programs, and ministries of all kinds to allow our music and our worship to touch the heart of the Church worldwide,” said Gregory during remarks near the end of the liturgy.

“The Archdiocese of Atlanta was particularly blessed to have found in Charles Prejean someone who did all of those things with the shepherd's heart, who did those things well, generously, and very effectively.”

Born in 1941 in Lafayette, Louisiana, Prejean was raised in a devout Catholic family and sensed a call to the priesthood at a young age, despite standing restrictions on African Americans entering the seminary. He entered formation with the Society of the Divine Word—one of few religious communities at the time willing to accept Black men in America—and attended St. Augustine Seminary in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, from 1954 to 1958. He later worked at the Holy Rosary Institute, a Black Catholic school in his hometown, teaching French, history, and theology.

In 1963, while studying at what is now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Prejean attended the March on Washington and witnessed Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Prejean would later describe this experience as the impetus for his life of service and activism. 

He attended the protest with a Black Catholic priest, Fr Albert McKnight, who had formerly served at Prejean’s parish, St. Paul the Apostle Church in Lafayette, and the two helped found a credit union for the city’s impoverished community in the 1960s. They would later collaborate on the Southern Consumers Education Foundation and the Southern Consumers Cooperative, with Prejean becoming general manager of the latter. Also active in the movement was Prejean’s brother, Fred Sr., who likewise worked with McKnight.

Their work in the Black cooperative movement—which encouraged worker-owned businesses in response to the economic situation in the Jim Crow South—later blossomed into the Federation of Southern Cooperatives in 1967. Charles served as the first executive director, which brought him to Atlanta.

In 1985, following a merger with the Emergency Land Fund, the FSC took on a Land Assistance Fund and shifted its focus to the growing crisis of Black land loss in the South. The issue had been exacerbated by White resistance to the work of Black activist groups, and Prejean assisted in educating Black landowners on how to retain their property and foster economic growth.

Prejean noted that his family faced various threats against their lives and livelihood during his tenure with the FSC/LAF, which involved a period of residence in Alabama to establish the Rural Training and Research Center in Sumter County. There, he lived near his sister, Carol, and her husband, John Zippert; together, believed to be the first legally married interracial couple in modern Louisiana. The targeting of the FSC/LAF group in Alabama included hostile visits from the FBI and challenges from local politicians and judges, though Prejean remained an outspoken source of fortitude for the organization.

“Charles Prejean’s life exemplified what it means to do justice to love goodness and to walk humbly with God,” said Fr Desmond Drummer, pastor of Prejean’s Atlanta parish, during Tuesday’s funeral Mass. 

“And let us be clear today: Humility does not require one to be silent.”

Prejean left his post as FSC executive director in 1985 and moved to Atlanta, where he worked in various public service posts, including with the president of the city council and the mayor. He became director of the Atlanta Archdiocese’s Office of Black Catholics in 2000, working to solidify outreach to the larger Black diaspora—one of his former activities while still at the FSC. During this period, he was a faithful member of Most Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church and the Knights of Peter Claver. 

He retired from the archdiocese in 2015, at which time the Charles O. Prejean Sr. Unity Award was created in his honor, with him as the inaugural recipient. He was the recipient of various recognitions throughout his life, including the Rockefeller Public Service Award in 1981.

“Activism isn't only marching in the streets. It's how you treat the people in your own home and your own community,” said Tayari Jones, a Prejean family friend, during Charles’ funeral.

“Charles Prejean practiced a radical love that has touched everybody here.”

At the time of his death on July 24, Prejean was a resident of Birmingham, Alabama. He was predeceased by his parents, Oran and Edolia Prejean; grandchildren, Charles “T-Chalé” Prejean III and Savannah Elizabeth Bryant; sisters, Angela Brewer and Marie DeLarge; a brother, the activist Fred Prejean Sr.; and a nephew, Fred Jr.

He is survived by his wife, Carmen Dauphin Prejean; children, Carla, Chuck, and Charlotte; grandchildren, Mariah Williams, Alayna White, Charlee Bryant, Xavier “Javi” Bryant III; and sisters, Leora and Elsie Poydras, and Carol Zippert.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the T-Chalé Prejean Life Foundation or the Memorial Legacy Project of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, a project Charles Prejean helped to found.

Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.

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