Mathilda Taylor Beasley, OSF (November 14, 1832 – December 20, 1903) was a Black Catholic educator and religious leader who was the first African Americannun to serve in the state of Georgia. She founded a group of African-American nuns and one of the first U.S. orphanages for African-American girls.
She was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on November 14, 1832.[1] She was baptized as a Catholic in 1869, possibly in preparation for her marriage to Abraham Beasley, a wealthy free black restaurant owner in Savannah, who died in 1877.
Later in life, after becoming a Franciscan nun in England, Beasley returned to the United States and founded a group of African-American sisters in Georgia, called the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis.[3] Beasley attempted to affiliate her group with the Franciscan Order but was ultimately unsuccessful.[4]
She also started one of the first orphanages in the United States for African-American girls,[3] the St. Francis Home for Colored Orphans.[5]
In 1982 the Mother Mathilda Beasley Park was dedicated in Savannah on a tract of land east of East Broad Street. A Georgia Historical Marker documenting her life was erected in 1988 at her home in Savannah.[6] In 2014 her cottage, formerly located at 1511 Price Street, was relocated into Mother Mathilda Beasley Park as an interpretive center.
