In the Diocese of Belleville, about 110 students from Althoff Catholic High School participated in the walkout. Students and some faculty joined hands and formed a prayer circle on the athletic field behind the school and prayed silently for 17 minutes.

I saw Dr. Martin Luther King up close twice in the summer and fall of 1967. In those days I always carried a 35mm camera in my pocket; so I’m not sure on which occasion I snapped the images (at right) that I now treasure.

Those who attended the Annual Thomas Merton Black History Month Lecture at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky., Feb. 21 heard Bishop Edward K. Braxton say that in order to bridge the racial divide in the United States one must listen, learn, think, pray and act.