Thousands of people are expected to take part in the March For Our Lives event March 24 in Washington, D.C., and the more than 800 "sibling marches" planned worldwide. Hundreds of sisters will be among them. The march is to demand that children be safe from gun violence in their schools.

The first black U.S. sisters ensured that future generations would know what it meant to be authentically black and Catholic.The 400 black women religious in the United States today can be found in both the historically black congregations and in the predominantly white congregations from which they were previously banned. However, they make up less than 1 percent of the nation's vowed women religious, which perhaps explains, in part, why people are often surprised to learn they exist.

This story appears in the Notes from the Field feature series. View the full series.

Notes from the Field - I joined Dominican Volunteers USA not because it was a Catholic volunteer program, but because I identified with their mission and admired the great work they did. When my service year started and I came out to New York, the sisters I met here were of similar minds to the people I knew at the Dominican University Ministry Center, in that they were just as progressive about the issues I cared about and were open to learning.

This story appears in the Sustainable Development Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals feature series. View the full series.

"Through the internet, movies and television, they see a very different reality, an image of Europe that is not real. They see that women have more freedom in Europe, and nobody believes there is also a lot of poverty."