Mary and the African American church

[ELCore]

A fuller story, though I can't vouch for its accuracy, says that the festival was also a fund-raiser: the black Catholics wanted to build their own chapel and Sunday School building. See, for instance, President Lincoln and the Black Catholic Community of Washington. Lincoln Day by Day (Monday, July 4, 1864) does not record the event, but it would not do so if Lincoln himself is not known to have put in an appearance.

The article, and (apparently) the book it references, says that the arrangement was facilitated by the husband (Gabriel) of one Mary Coakley who was Mary Lincoln's seamstress. We all know, however, that Elizabeth Keckley was Mrs. Lincoln's dressmaker, and I can't find any mention of a "Mary Coakley" anywhere, though she might very well have been another seamstress working for Mrs. Lincoln or for Mrs. Keckley. Thus, I am unsure of the validity of (at least parts of) the story.