Bradshaw
I was going to write that the death of Lafayette native Norman Francis on February 18 brought a conclusion to one of the most extraordinary family stories that I have ever known. But that would be wrong.
I briefly met Dr. Francis and his brother Joseph Francis Jr., both remarkable men, but never met Joseph Francis Sr. and Mabel Coco Francis, the parents who may have been the most important people in the story.
Norman Francis was president of Xavier University for 47 years, a tenure that would be notable for its longevity, if nothing else. But there was much more. During that time Xavier doubled its enrollment, turned out more graduates who went on to medical careers than any other school in the U.S., and became widely recognized for its academic excellence.
He was the first Black graduate of Loyola law school in 1955 and litigated civil rights cases in the turbulent 1960s. In 1972 he co-founded Liberty Bank, one of the oldest and largest Black-owned banks in the nation. He was one of the first investors in the New Orleans Saints. He was chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, leading the rebuilding effort in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Bradshaw
For those and a long list of other achievements, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush in 2006, received honorary degrees from 35 U.S. colleges and universities, and was remembered at his death as “a towering figure in American higher education and civil rights.”
Joseph Francis Jr. was ordained to the priesthood by the Society of the Divine Word in 1950 and was ordained a bishop in 1976. Like his brother, he was involved in education and was an outspoken civil rights leader. One of his first assignments as a young priest was as director of Holy Rosary Institute in Lafayette. A later assignment took him to the Watts area of Los Angeles, where he founded Verbum Dei High School in 1962. When he was appointed as bishop he said that was “the second great challenge” in his life. Founding the school in that troubled neighborhood was the first.
One of his most important works was “Brothers and Sisters to Us,” a pastoral letter on racism that was published by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1979.
He died in 1997 and was buried from Lafayette’s St. John Cathedral in what I still remember not as a mournful ceremony but an uplifting celebration of the life of a man remembered for “bulldog grit,” his winning smile, and his love of a good story. As testament to his stature, a cardinal, two archbishops, and 10 bishops participated in that celebration.
It may be that because neither Joseph Francis Sr. nor Mabel Coco Francis even finished high school that they valued education so highly for their two sons and three daughters. The children went to school and went to church and that was that. Norman said in a newspaper interview some years ago, “I had to have a fever, and really be ill before I dared to try to miss school.”
Joseph Sr. was a barber who rode to work on a bicycle because the family valued education over transportation and scrimped so that the children could be educated in parochial schools. All of the children went to St. Paul Elementary School in Lafayette. Norman graduated from St. Paul High School, Joseph went to the seminary at age 13.
When Bishop Francis died he was eulogized as “a remarkable man who came from a remarkable family where quiet leadership has been the standard since his Dad was setting down rules at his barber shop.” Norman said at his brother’s funeral that they were taught “the simple, important things that we must know,” including “compassion and the simple principle that if you respect other people, they will respect you.”
Those “simple, important” things formed the basis of much greater accomplishment by their children than Joesph Sr. and Mabel probably ever imagined, and have been passed on to others touched by their quiet but determined leadership.
You can contact Jim Bradshaw at [email protected] or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.
