This date was chosen as it is near the Feast of St. Peter Claver, a heroic Jesuit priest who ministered, both spiritually and physically, to those who were enslaved and deported to Colombia South America in the 17th Century. He ministered to the sick and those near death who arrived on these overcrowded ships. He worked for humane treatment on the plantations for 40 years, and is said to have baptized 300,000 souls during his service to these captured and enslaved. He is the patron saint of African Americans and for inter-racial justice. He is quoted as saying “We must speak to (the enslaved) with our hands by giving, before we try to speak to them with our lips.”