User:Haymaker/Dolores Bernadette Grier

{{Multiple issues|primarysources=May 2009|BLP sources=May 2009|self-published=May 2009|tone=May 2009|weasel=May 2009|date=July 2011}}

Dr. Dolores Bernadette Grier is an African American pro-life activist and non-fiction author.

Early life

When Grier was a teenager she converted to Roman Catholicism. She graduated with a master's degree in social work from Fordham University. In 1980 she heard a "persuasive, dynamic speech in defense of all human life from conception" by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and credits this speech with bringing her into the pro-life movement.

Affiliations with the Roman Catholic Church

After her conversion to Catholicism, Grier worked in the department of social development of Catholic Charities as an educational co-ordinator. In 1985, Cardinal John O'Connor appointed her as vice chancellor to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. This was the first time a woman, an African American or a lay person had been appointed to the position. Grier was appointed to the U.S. Bishops' National Advisory Council in 1994.

Pro-Life Advocacy

In 1979, Grier presented workshops on 'The Black Community and Abortion' and 'Teenagers and Abortion' at the sixth annual Connecticut Right To Life Corporation convention.

Published Works

In her book Death by Abortion: The Basic Facts, Griers commented on the course Jackson took in his career by saying, "Regrettably, Rev. Jackson joined the Democratic political party and adopted its pro-abortion/pro-choice platform. Too many legislators, Republican and Democratic, have chosen to walk on the 'comfort zone' bridge of pro-choice, thus turning their backs on the unborn human beings, perhaps because they are not yet voters or members of a political action group."

NAACP

In 1993 the New York city branch of the NAACP selected her to be the recipient of the Women's History Month award, she refused it and membership because of the organization's pro-choice stance on abortion. "As president of the Association of Black Catholics," she wrote, "I believe abortion to be a racist weapon of genocide against black people. It has been thrust upon black women as a solution to their economic crises, confusion and concern."

Grier sits on the Board of Advisors of the Catholic League and is founder of Black Catholics Against Abortion.

"Yesterday they snatched babies from our arms and sold them into slavery, today they snatch them from our womb and throw them into the garbage."

References

Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:Fordham University alumni Category:Roman Catholic activists Category:American Roman Catholics Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism Category:African American writers Category:American pro-life activists