From its inception until the present, Healy-Murphy Center has established an enduring legacy grounded in inclusivity, diversity and equity. In 1888, a wealthy Irish immigrant widow, Sister Margaret Mary Healy Murphy, decided to use her personal funds to open St. Peter Claver Academy (which is the present day Healy-Murphy Center) in San Antonio, Texas. Her primary motivation was to elevate a segment of the population which was being excluded from educational opportunities at the time—African American students. It is in the spirit of Mother Margaret Mary Healy-Murphy’s vision for purposeful change that Healy-Murphy Center issues this statement in celebration of the recent Supreme Court decision on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
The effort to exclude “Dreamers” –these very deserving young Latino/a Americans–from a meaningful future that is ensured through the liberties and privileges that rightfully belongs to them is ubiquitously un-American. And those who would remain silent in the face of this assault on the freedoms and rights of our most vulnerable citizens are complicit in their oppression. These innocent children did not choose their circumstances; they were thrust upon them at birth. The decision of the United States Supreme Court to protect them from oppression is further evidence that the long arc of the moral universe bends toward justice.
When St. Peter Claver Academy became the first privately funded school for African American students in Texas, its mission was not universally embraced. Similarly, the voices of those who initially stood and demanded fairness for the Dreamers were muted by the chorus of spiteful cries for their dismissal from the American Dream. The courage demonstrated by the highest court in the land reassures us that our yearnings for a future filled with hope for all American children is more than just a dream.
As always, Healy-Murphy Center expresses its resolve to shine the light of righteousness, justice and liberty wherever the lingering shadows of evil threatens to suffocate it. We must expect, however, that the malicious efforts of the oppressors will continue and will only be deterred by our enduring persistence. While we are yet encouraged that a shift towards structural racial justice appears to be on the horizon, we must remain vigilant in our activism to see the battle through to culmination.
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.