Black History Month we solute: Rev. Mother Consuella York

Biography Consuella Batchelor was born on July 26, 1923, in Chicago, Illinois. She was one of four children of John L. and Conusela Batchelor. John was a Baptist preacher and he hoped that his son would follow him into the ministry, but the son died young. Prior to her parents separation in 1931, Consuella and one of her sisters went to live with their maternal grandmother in Tennessee for the next four years. Consuella returned to Chicago in 1935 to live with her mother and her step father Nelson Jones. Also in 1935, during a church service, she committed her life to Christ. She attended Wendell Phillips high school and helped out in various ways around the home while her mother worked at Cook County Hospital to support the family. After graduating from Phillips in 1940, Consuella took a business and shorthand course in the evening. About this same time, she married for the first time to Luke Keel. In 1942, her son, Luke, was born, followed by a second son, Thomas. Consuella's mother died in Tennessee in 1942. After the birth of her second son, Consuella's husband abandoned her and she eventually divorced him. In 1948 she married Charles York and a year later her third son, John, was born. (She later adopted two more children - Frederick Harvey and Virginia Franklin). Because she was afraid of the effect her husband's alcoholism would have on the children, she separated from him in 1950. For several years she supported herself and her children by running a small mineograph and printing business. In 1948 she won an oratorical contest and her prize was the first year's tuition at the Chicago Baptist Institute. She took courses to improve her Bible knowledge and speaking skills and eventually completed the entire seminary course. At the same time she was continuing to run her business as well as manage a small storefront assistance program for drug addicts, alcoholics and derelicts which she had started. She went with a friend named Mrs. Oglesby in Februar