Black, White, and Catholic

New Orleans Interracialism, 1947-1956

R. Bentley Anderson, R. Anderson

• Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN: 9780826514844, 9780826514837
• eBook ISBN: 9780826591937
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Most histories of the Civil Rights Movement start with all the players in place--among them organized groups of African Americans, White Citizens' Councils, nervous politicians, and religious leaders struggling to find the right course. Anderson, however, takes up the historical moment right before that, when small groups of black and white Catholics in the city of New Orleans began efforts to desegregate the archdiocese, and the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) began, in fits and starts, to integrate quietly the New Orleans Province.

Anderson leads readers through the tumultuous years just after World War II when the Roman Catholic Church in the American South struggled to reconcile its commitment to social justice with the legal and social heritage of Jim Crow society. Though these early efforts at reform, by and large, failed, they did serve to galvanize Catholic supporters and opponents of the Civil Rights Movement and provided a model for more successful efforts at desegregation in the '60s.

As a Jesuit himself, Anderson has access to archives that remain off-limits to other scholars. His deep knowledge of the history of the Catholic Church also allows him to draw connections between this historical period and the present. In the resistance to desegregation, Anderson finds expression of a distinctly American form of Catholicism, in which lay people expect Church authorities to ratify their ideas and beliefs in an almost democratic fashion. The conflict he describes is as much between popular and hierarchical models of the Church as between segregation and integration.

This book has been made possible through a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Introduction. New Orleans, the Land of Creoles and Catholics
• Chapter I. The Genesis of Southern Catholic Interracialism, 1917–1947
• Chapter II. Interracial Agitation: Raising Awareness, 1948
• Chapter III. Interracial Activism: Belief in Practice, 1948–1949
• Chapter IV. Catholic Choice: Jim Crowism or Jesus Christ, 1949–1952
• Chapter V. "Norman Francis Is a Negro": Desegregating Catholic Colleges, 1952–1953
• Chapter VI. Bearing Fruit: Catholic Interracialism in the Age of Brown, 1952–1956
• Chapter VII. The Rise of Southern Catholic Resistance, 1955–1956
• Chapter VIII. The Death of Southern Catholic Interracialism, 1956
• Chapter IX. Southern Catholics, Martin Luther King, Jr., and "Letter from Birmingham Jail"
• Appendix A. Population of Catholic College Students in New Orleans, 1947–1956
• Appendix B. Manhattanville Resolutions
• Appendix C. Resolution Passed by Members of the Southeastern Regional Interracial Commission
• Appendix D. Resolution 5C 48-10
• Appendix E. Resolution 5C 48-17
• Appendix F. Concerning Inter-racial Relations at Loyola University
• Appendix G. Working Draft and Final Resolution Passed at First Regional Congress of the NFCCS
• Appendix H. Resolution Introduced by the Delegates from the New York-New Jersey Region at the Tenth National Congress of the NFCCS
• Appendix I. Resolution to be Presented to the Dads' Club of the Holy Name of Jesus School
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index