As a Black American growing up in segregated Mobile, Ala., 11-year-old Jerome Gary Cooper likely never imagined that he would meet a future Catholic saint. He certainly never thought that a famous radio personality—then-Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen—would travel under police escort down the humble dirt road to Cooper’s house. But that brief visit in 1948 changed the trajectory of Cooper’s life.
It also powerfully illustrates the human impact of the Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s civil rights legacy, and how he lived his belief that every human being possesses equal, God-given dignity.
Long before the civil rights movement reached its peak in the 1960s, Sheen was using his massive global platform to educate Americans on an idea he explained in his book A Declaration of Dependence. Sheen’s book emphasized the truth that human dignity comes from God, not the government. Following that reasoning, Sheen believed that political and social problems in the United States stemmed from the nation’s increasing secularism. He argued that if God doesn’t exist, then he cannot be the source of rights. And if human rights come instead from the state, or from a dictator, they can be trampled on a whim.
Nowhere was this lesson more evident than in the abuses Black Americans suffered before the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Black Americans were dehumanized and denied equal treatment under the law based on the false belief that they were somehow lesser humans than their fellow Americans.
Sheen argued that discriminating against a large segment of the population undermined the greatest commandment: love of God, from which love of neighbor flows. Sheen preached eloquently that racism and other attacks on civil rights were direct attacks on all human beings and, ultimately, God himself.
He advocated for just laws that protected human rights—not only because he believed in respecting the human dignity of all, but also because he recognized that undermining the human rights of some Americans was dangerous in the long term for everyone.
Sheen wasn’t content to simply preach or urge legislation on these issues. He lived his beliefs—traveling to raise money for low-income communities and encouraging young Black Americans to dream big.
His encounter with young Jerome Cooper is proof. Sheen’s visit to the Cooper family centered around his plans to help Jerome’s father build a maternity hospital for Black women. At the time, Jim Crow laws barred Black women from delivering their children at hospitals. Sheen reportedly donated thousands of dollars to build the Black hospital in Mobile.
When they met, Sheen asked if Cooper had ever heard of the University of Notre Dame. Cooper had not. He also didn’t know that Notre Dame had begun admitting Black Americans only four years before. In 1954, Sheen’s recommendation helped Cooper secure an academic scholarship and enroll as a Notre Dame student.
Sheen’s help was the first step to Cooper eventually becoming a Marine general, the first Black American ambassador to Jamaica, and the first Black American to lead a Marine infantry company in combat.
The kindness shown to the Cooper family and to the Mobile community offers just a small glimpse into Sheen’s civil-rights efforts. The man who went on to win an Emmy and engage millions of viewers on his weekly television program “Life is Worth Living” made it a priority to truly improve the lives of all Americans—not just those who shared the color of his skin.
In 1949, Sheen provided funding for a new parish for Black Catholics in Birmingham, Ala. And when he became the bishop of Rochester, N.Y., in the 1960s, he spent his years there serving the poor, improving race relations and supporting efforts to end segregation.
He created the Sheen Ecumenical Housing Foundation in 1967 to fight housing discrimination. He advocated for workers in minority groups and challenged Kodak, one of the largest employers in New York State, for having discriminatory hiring practices.
He loved his fellow citizens, and through his love, advocacy and prayer, he gave them hope for a better America. Americans today have much to learn from Sheen’s witness during the civil rights movement.
His beatification this September is a timely opportunity to revisit Sheen’s patriotic and theological writings—especially his belief that God is the source of all human rights, that the law must honor this fundamental truth and that a genuine loving witness is often the best vehicle for truly changing hearts and minds. best vehicle for truly changing hearts and minds.
[Read next: “Fulton Sheen Bet on America. Some Catholics Want to Call It Off.”]
This article appears in September 2026.
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