January 13, 2022

Catholic deacon, friend of Emmett Till, to speak at cathedral Jan. 16

REGIONAL
Staff report

Deacon Arthur Miller (iObserve photo/Aaron Joseph, Catholic Transcript)

SPRINGFIELD – The Knights and Ladies of St. Peter Claver of the Springfield Diocese will host Deacon Arthur Miller from the Archdiocese of Hartford as preacher at the 8:30 a.m. Mass at St. Michael’s Cathedral, Springfield, on Sunday, Jan. 16. Deacon Miller also will be the Martin Luther King Jr. Day speaker at the coffee hour following the Mass. The coffee hour will be held in the Bishop Marshall Center adjacent to the cathedral.

The former director of the Office for Black Catholic Ministries for the Archdiocese of Hartford, Deacon Miller is a nationally known preacher. He grew up on the South Side of Chicago in the 1940s and 1950s and was 10 years old when his schoolmate Emmett Till was brutally murdered while visiting relatives in Mississippi.

Deacon Miller will share the story about his arrest during the summer of 1963 as he sat in a peaceful protest over segregation, and how his 14-year-old schoolmate, Emmett Till, was murdered for allegedly whistling at a white woman. This event was central to the start of the Civil Rights Movement.

In Deacon Miller’s book, The Journey to Chatham (Author House 2005), he gives an account seen through the eyes of Till’s friends.

All are welcome to attend the Jan. 16 Mass and coffee hour at the cathedral. For more information, contact Marion Johnson, director of the Springfield Diocese’s Black Catholic Apostolate, at 413.563.7518 or marionmarie@live.com.