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Is Pope Leo XIV Black?
The Real Question is, How Black is He?
When American Robert Prevost became Pope, naming himself Leo XIV, a firestorm of controversy was set off because of his Black relatives on his mother’s side. Both his maternal grandparents, Joseph Martinez and Louise Baquié, are described as Black or mulatto in several census documents.
This wouldn’t be shocking to anyone researching their genealogy through DNA testing. Most individuals have mixed heritage and a little Black blood in their veins, especially in a family with deep roots in Chicago and New Orleans. I have a great uncle who passed for white in the Chicago area and lost touch, or purposely kept out of touch with the rest of our family. His descendants, whether they know it or not, have Black blood.
Robert Prevost’s maternal grandparents, Joseph Martinez and Louise Baquié, are both described as Black or mulatto in several census documents. While I couldn’t see any Black features in Joseph Martinez, I could easily tell that Louise Baquié was descended from Africans. Joseph was born in Haiti, with a large population of light-skinned Black people, and Louise was born in New Orleans. On the 1900 census, while his family lived in New Orleans, Leo XIV’s maternal grandparents and his aunts — Irma and Margaret — were identified as Black. However, in 1920, after the family migrated to…
