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Did Pope Leo have black ancestors? Maybe.
“At the turn of the 20th century, the pope’s maternal grandparents, Louise Baquie and Joseph Martinez, were living in New Orleans and listed as Black in the 1900 Census, with Martinez’s place of birth listed as “Hayti” and his occupation as “cigar maker,” according to census records. They lived in New Orleans’s 7th Ward, then the heartbeat of the city’s Creole community.
The couple eventually left the 7th Ward, according to the 1910 Census, in which they were listed as White. Martinez’s birthplace was listed as “Santo Domingo”— potentially referencing the Dominican Republic or the historical term “Saint-Domingue” for Haiti, according to Andre Kearns, founder and chief executive of Black Ancestries, a company that researches the ancestry of people of African descent.
In the 1920 Census, the family, then living in Chicago, was once again listed as White and Martinez’s birthplace was identified as Haiti. Leo’s mother, Mildred Martinez, was the couple’s only child to be born in Chicago; her siblings were all born in New Orleans.
One of the pope’s cousins, Joan Plum, confirmed that the maternal side of their family was originally from New Orleans: The pope’s mother was sisters with Plum’s grandmother, and their parents were both from that area, she wrote in a message to The Post. She said she and Leo had relatives who still lived there while they were growing up in Chicago.
When asked about the family’s Creole history, John Prevost, the pope’s brother, told the New York Times the family didn’t identify as Black and never discussed its Creole roots. His paternal grandparents were from France, he said.
“At the turn of the 20th century, the pope’s maternal grandparents, Louise Baquie and Joseph Martinez, were living in New Orleans and listed as Black in the 1900 Census, with Martinez’s place of birth listed as “Hayti” and his occupation as “cigar maker,” according to census records. They lived in New Orleans’s 7th Ward, then the heartbeat of the city’s Creole community.
The couple eventually left the 7th Ward, according to the 1910 Census, in which they were listed as White. Martinez’s birthplace was listed as “Santo Domingo”— potentially referencing the Dominican Republic or the historical term “Saint-Domingue” for Haiti, according to Andre Kearns, founder and chief executive of Black Ancestries, a company that researches the ancestry of people of African descent.
In the 1920 Census, the family, then living in Chicago, was once again listed as White and Martinez’s birthplace was identified as Haiti. Leo’s mother, Mildred Martinez, was the couple’s only child to be born in Chicago; her siblings were all born in New Orleans.
One of the pope’s cousins, Joan Plum, confirmed that the maternal side of their family was originally from New Orleans: The pope’s mother was sisters with Plum’s grandmother, and their parents were both from that area, she wrote in a message to The Post. She said she and Leo had relatives who still lived there while they were growing up in Chicago.
When asked about the family’s Creole history, John Prevost, the pope’s brother, told the New York Times the family didn’t identify as Black and never discussed its Creole roots. His paternal grandparents were from France, he said.
