Parishoners assembled with their first five communicants on First Communion Day in front of the main building after the First Communion Mass, St. Raphael's Church, Pine Bluff, Ark., April 13, 1958 [graphic]. 1958.

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Hubbell, Ken. Parishoners assembled with their first five communicants on First Communion Day in front of the main building after the First Communion Mass, St. Raphael's Church, Pine Bluff, Ark., April 13, 1958 [graphic].

Parishoners assembled with their first five communicants on First Communion Day in front of the main building after the First Communion Mass, St. Raphael's Church, Pine Bluff, Ark., April 13, 1958 [graphic]. 1958.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/47210633

Negative taken unidentified children and adults at the First Communion Day on April 13, 1958, in front of the main building after the First Communion Mass at Saint Raphael's Mission, southeast of Pine Bluff, Jefferson County, Arkansas. Parishioners are assembled with their first five communicants. St. Raphael's Catholic Colored Orphanage opened in 1932 under the direction of Father Bruno Dresher. The property also included a farm. Due to a lack of interest in giving orphans to a religious facility instead of placing them in home in the community, St. Raphael's changed into an industrial school for African Americans in 1938. Ran by the Franciscan Brothers from Ohio, the institution was called St. Raphael's Community Center for Colored Education. In 1955, fire destroyed much of the old buildings and missionary church at St. Raphael's. Although structures were rebuilt, the Franciscans left St. Raphael's in 1961, making it a missionary church of St. Peter's in Pine Bluff, Jefferson County, Arkansas.

1 copy negative : b&w ; 13 x 10 cm. (5 x 4 in.)

Arkansas History Commission