A Cry for Justice

Daniel Rudd and His Life in Black Catholicism, Journalism, and Activism, 1854-1933

Gary B. Agee

• Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781682260487, 9781557289759
• eBook ISBN: 9781610754910
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Journalist Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

Daniel A. Rudd, born a slave in Bardstown, Kentucky, grew up to achieve much in the years following the Civil War. His Catholic faith, passion for activism, and talent for writing led him to increasingly influential positions in many places. One of his important early accomplishments was the publication of the American Catholic Tribune, which Rudd referred to as "the only Catholic journal owned and published by colored men." At its zenith, the Tribune, run out of Detroit and Cincinnati, where Rudd lived, had ten thousand subscribers, making it one of the most successful black newspapers in the country. Rudd was also active in the leadership of the Afro-American Press Association, and he was a founding member of the Catholic Press Association. By 1889, Rudd was one of the nation's best-known black Catholics. His work was endorsed by a number of high-ranking church officials in Europe as well as in the United States, and he was one of the founders of the Lay Catholic Congress movement. Later, his travels took him to Bolivar County, Mississippi, and eventually on to Forrest City, Arkansas, where he worked for the well-known black farmer and businessperson, Scott Bond, and eventually co-wrote Bond's biography.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 • Daniel Rudd and the Establishment of the American Catholic Tribune
• 2 • A New Civilization Based on the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man
• 3 • Archbishop John Ireland’s Masterly Plea for Justice
• 4 • Justice for African Americans
• 5 • Beyond Concerns of Race
• 6 • The Colored Catholic Congress Movement, 1889–1894
• 7 • Daniel Rudd’s Post-ACT Years in the South
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author