26 Facts About Daniel Rudd

Daniel Arthur Rudd was a Black Catholic journalist and early Civil Rights leader.

Daniel Rudd founded the Colored Catholic Congress in 1889, which held five meetings total and lasted until 1894.

Daniel Rudd was born on August 7,1854, on Anatok Plantation in Bardstown, Kentucky to enslaved parents Robert and Elizabeth Rudd.

Daniel Rudd was very religious, but it is unknown at what point in his life he decided to make the promotion of Catholicism his life's work.

Daniel Rudd was eventually emancipated from slavery and moved to Springfield, Ohio while still a young adult, sometime before 1876.

Daniel Rudd believed that the press played a large role in Black advancement.

Daniel Rudd thought that editors and journalists had the ability to persuade and educate Catholic, business and civic leaders.

In 1885 Daniel Rudd began his first Catholic newspaper called the Ohio Tribune, the first Black paper printed by and for the Black community.

Daniel Rudd believed that the newspaper was important in promoting the church as a transformational institution that was capable of bringing equality and social justice for African Americans.

Daniel Rudd was a very good businessman who knew how to reach out and teach others who thought like him and wanted to push for the same rights and changes, such as Black Catholics and Protestants.

Daniel Rudd was successful for quite some time in his printing business, and by 1892, Daniel Rudd's newspaper was printing 10,000 copies.

Daniel Rudd's successes led the Afro-American Press League to ask Rudd to serve as its president.

The enterprising Daniel Rudd served in this capacity even as he worked to keep his Queen City printing business and printing school afloat.

Daniel Rudd was very observant activist, watching and interacting with various organizations, discussing matters unique to the respective organizations.

In particular, Daniel Rudd watched the workings of the German Roman Catholic Central Verein.

In September 1887, Daniel Rudd attended a gathering in Chicago to address the group.

Daniel Rudd thought to gather Black Catholics to discuss various troubles in the Black community.

Daniel Rudd built the idea of an English-speaking Catholic congress in the hope that all races would attend.

Daniel Rudd wanted to include all the injustices facing people of color everywhere, but specifically Africa and Latin America.

Daniel Rudd worked in Bolivar County, Mississippi, as a lumber mill manager, and eventually he went to work for Scott Bond, Arkansas' first Black millionaire.

Daniel Rudd later found himself working as a business manager, accountant, inventor, and teacher.

That philosophy of self-help did not last very long after Daniel Rudd was invited to and participated at the NAACP convention in Cleveland in 1919.

In 1932 Daniel Rudd suffered a stroke, after which his family brought him back to his childhood home.

Daniel Rudd died there on December 3,1933, at the age of 79.

Daniel Rudd is buried in St Joseph's Cemetery, adjacent to Rudd's childhood parish of the same name.

Daniel Rudd remains a vaunted figure in the history of Black Catholicism, and is highly honored among its adherents as well as in the larger American Church.