Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, since its inception, built by Italian immigrants from southern Italy and Sicily, has been the bedrock of Montclair’s Fourth Ward, a predominantly Italian American and African American neighborhood. It’s been a community of Black and white families who shared the same struggles, dreams and goals.

The feasts of St. Sebastian and Our Lady of Mount Carmel were the centerpieces, always with fireworks bursting in the air, as the saints were accompanied by young children and the American and Italian flags being carried from the church, the girls dressed in their communion dresses and veils, and the boys dressed in their alter boy tunics.