Saint Frances Academy was founded in 1828 by Mary Elizabeth Lange, later known as Mother Mary Lange, at a time when educating Black people was frowned upon. It stands today as the first and oldest continually operating Black Catholic school in the United States.
In the early 19th century, teaching Black people was illegal in many parts of the United States, including parts of Maryland. Although Maryland didn’t have a specific law banning enslaved people from learning to read or write, the idea of educating them was strongly discouraged. Slaveholders believed that literacy could spark rebellion and a desire for freedom. Even where there were no clear laws against it, social pressure and intimidation made teaching Black children risky. Despite these obstacles, Lange believed education was essential for dignity, faith, and liberation.
On June 13, 1828, she founded the Oblate School for Colored Girls at 5 St. Mary’s Court in Baltimore’s Seton Hill neighborhood. The school’s mission was simple but revolutionary: to teach “children of color to read the Bible.” At a time when even the act of a Black child holding a book was seen as subversive, Lange’s school became a safe haven for learning and hope.
The school later moved to George Street and then Richmond Street, where in 1832 it proudly graduated its first class. By 1853, it adopted a new name, the Saint Frances School for Colored Girls, honoring St. Frances of Rome. Over time, it became known as Saint Frances Academy, and in 1871, the institution settled permanently at its current location on East Chase Street in inner East Baltimore.
Mother Mary Lange’s journey to that moment was as remarkable as the institution she founded. Born around 1789 in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), Lange fled the violence of the Haitian Revolution with her parents, who resettled in Santiago de Cuba. There, she received an excellent education before migrating to the United States in the early 1800s. She eventually settled in Baltimore, which had one of the nation’s largest populations of free Black people, many of them refugees from the Caribbean.
Before establishing Saint Frances Academy, Lange had already begun teaching Black children in her home in the Fells Point area around 1818. Public education for Black children would not exist in Baltimore until nearly 50 years later, in 1866.
In Baltimore, Lange met Father James Nicholas Joubert, a French priest who also fled the Haitian Revolution. Joubert taught catechism to African-American children at St. Mary’s Seminary and noticed their struggle to learn due to illiteracy. He approached Lange and her friend Marie Balas, who were already running a small school, and proposed founding a formal institution for Black girls. Their partnership led to the creation of the Oblate School for Colored Girls and, later, the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first Catholic religious order for women of African descent in the United States.
On July 2, 1829, Lange and three other women, Marie Balas, Mary Rosine Boegues, and Almeide Theresa Duchemin, took their religious vows, formally establishing the order. Mother Lange became its first superior general. The sisters dedicated themselves to teaching, caring for orphans and widows, and providing vocational training for Black women, an extraordinary mission in a deeply segregated America.
Despite racism, poverty, and persecution, Saint Frances Academy and the Oblate Sisters of Providence endured. Each classroom became a quiet battlefield against ignorance and inequality. Every child taught was a victory against the forces that sought to deny African Americans the right to knowledge and faith.
Mother Mary Lange continued to lead and serve her community until her death on February 3, 1882. Her legacy lived on through the generations of Black students who passed through Saint Frances Academy’s doors, students who would go on to become teachers, leaders, and defenders of human dignity.
In 2023, nearly two centuries after she first opened her school, the Vatican recognized her extraordinary life of faith and service. Pope Francis declared Mother Mary Lange “Venerable”, marking a major step toward possible sainthood.
Today, Saint Frances Academy remains a vibrant institution in Baltimore’s Johnston Square neighborhood. It stands as both a school and a sacred reminder of a time when teaching a Black child to read was an act of bravery.
Sources:
https://www.sfacademy.org/our-story
https://aaregistry.org/story/saint-frances-academy-high-school-opens/
