Tonya (Adéjọké) Butler-Truesdale

Tonya (Adéjọké) Butler-Truesdale

The Rev. Tonya (Adéjọké) Butler-Truesdale is a fifth-generation Washingtonian, writer, ordained minister, Isese onifa, municipal governance attorney and graduate student whose work explores Afro-diasporic memory, spirituality, public witness, community healing and public theology.

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Student and employee participants in Merrimack College's Pellegrinaggio Group met with Pope Leo XIV on March 12, 2026. (Courtesy of Tonya (Adéjọké) Butler-Truesdale)

A Black womanist meets the pope

The Rev. Tonya Butler-Truesdale reflects on meeting Pope Leo XIV as a Black woman formed by deep faith, ancestral memory and ecclesial marginalization.

A mural of the late rapper and activist Nipsey Hussle in Washington, D.C.'s Shaw neighborhood (Tonya (Adéjọké) Butler-Truesdale)

This Easter season, look to Black public memory for insight

Too often, Easter is preached as if it begins in triumph. But the Gospel story does not begin there. It begins with grief, confusion, absence and a love trying to remain faithful after catastrophe. Black Christians know this terrain well.

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