Rev. Art Miller

Arthur Miller grew up on the South Side of Chicago in the 1940s and 1950s.  He was 10 years old when schoolmate Emmett Till was brutally murdered in Mississippi — an incident captured in his 2005 book The Journey to Chatham.  Miller, a Vietnam-era veteran, graduated from the University of Illinois in 1966 and received his MBA from DePaul University in 1972.  He had a successful business career: as Aetna Insurance director of corporate marketing for the western United States and as owner and president of A. Miller Investments.  After retiring, in 2004, he became the first African American ordained to the permanent diaconate in Hartford, Connecticut.

He was assigned to St. Michael Church in Hartford’s North End, a center of ministry to African American Catholics since the mid-20th century.  In 2005, he was named director of the Office of Black Catholic Ministries. He also hosts a Sunday morning radio talk show and serves as chaplain at Capitol Community College and as Adjunct faculty for Holy Family Retreat Center in West Hartford and Our Lady of Calvary Retreat Center in Farmington, CT.  Miller, an active presence at NBCCC, NABDC and Joint Conference gatherings, rightfully challenges our groups to be true and faithful to the Gospel.

Although now a nationally renowned speaker and preacher, Miller takes more pride in his activism and his ministry to inner-city youth.  Miller is the Hartford Archdiocese representative to the Connecticut Coalition to Save Darfur (Sudan). He lives by the adage, “Meet the people where they are” … on the corner, in the store, in the jail, in the church, or wherever.  Having witnessed the stifling impact of poverty, he has befriended many young folks to offer alternatives to drugs and violence, even helping former gang leaders get jobs. On the streets of Hartford, he’s widely known by the street name “Dad.”  

Even at age 70, he refuses to be a bystander.  He recently joined a peaceful protest in Hartford, purposefully breaking the law by blocking traffic as part of an effort to raise awareness that “Black lives matter.”  He was arrested for challenging racial injustice; that hadn’t happened since 1963, during a street demonstration of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee back home in Chicago.  Unfortunately, more than 50 years later, the fight continues. Fortunately for us, we have a veteran for Christ in the fight to inspire us.