Lessons Along the Way

After joining the seminary, a young white man from Wisconsin is sent South for the summer and discovers an America that is foreign to him, with its Jim Crow laws and racial caste system. Moved by the struggle for equality, Richard Keil becomes a priest and dedicates his life to the cause of social justice. But he soon finds that the divisiveness and hate he will have to battle exist not just outside the church doors, but within the Catholic Church itself. Keil would spend the next 25 years serving the community as a priest before deciding his life needed a new direction. Along the way, he had profound encounters with people from all walks of life. He also founded the Tubman Museum of African American Art, History and Culture in Georgia. These are some of the lessons he learned -- from those oppressed and those with plenty; from laborers and professionals; from scholars and the barely literate; from religious and laypeople -- as he endeavored to be a man of conscience.