Roman
112-720: Relations with: The Federated Colored Catholics (FCC), originally the Committee against the Extension of Race Prejudice in the Church , then the Committee for the Advancement of Colored Catholics , was a Black Catholic organization founded in 1925 by Thomas Wyatt Turner . It was a kind of spiritual successor to Daniel Rudd 's Colored Catholic Congress movement (1889-1904), providing an organized voice in an era of nearly unchecked anti-Blackness and systemic racism . After
224-745: A Second Great Migration (1940–70), which began after the Great Depression and brought at least five million people—including many townspeople with urban skills—to the North and West. Since the Civil Rights Movement , the trend has reversed, with more African Americans moving to the South, albeit far more slowly. Dubbed the New Great Migration , these moves were generally spurred by the economic difficulties of cities in
336-488: A cultural boom in cities such as Chicago and New York. In Chicago for instance, the neighborhood of Bronzeville became known as the "Black Metropolis". From 1924 to 1929, the "Black Metropolis" was at the peak of its golden years. Many of the community's entrepreneurs were Black during this period. "The foundation of the first African American YMCA took place in Bronzeville, and worked to help incoming migrants find jobs in
448-624: A dearth of social opportunities - in a culture regulated by Jim Crow laws - also motivated African Americans to migrate Northward. When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, less than 8% of the African-American population lived in the Northeastern or Midwestern United States. This began to change over the next decade to such an extent that a U.S. Senate committee ordered an investigation into
560-504: A hostile takeover, it folded in the 1950s. The FCC was originally founded in December 1925 as a small group advocating for Black uplift, and later expanded within the local area before becoming a federated group of chapters in various other cities. They engaged in a number of social justice efforts, including a concerted push for more Black priests, who at the time were extremely few. (US seminaries had been entirely closed to Blacks until
672-583: A larger role, with migrants following the path set by those before them. African Americans from the South also migrated to industrialized Southern cities, in addition to northward and westward to war-boom cities. There was an increase in Louisville's defense industries, making it a vital part of America's effort into World War II and Louisville's economy. Industries ranged from producing synthetic rubber, smokeless powders, artillery shells, and vehicle parts. Many industries also converted to creating products for
784-681: A martyr), and Gelasius I . The vast majority of these Patristic -era figures resided in North Africa , where various Christian communities thrived until the Muslim conquests of the region. The Muslim takeover of Southern Spain ( Al-Andalus ) forced a significant Catholic community from there into North Africa , specifically Morocco; these individuals constituted the Mozarabic tradition. There were multiple early Christian kingdoms in Africa,
896-597: A more interracial direction—against Turner's will. The group would eventually splinter over this conflict, with LaFarge establishing the short-lived Catholic Interracial Council of New York, which spawned several other chapters. The FCC would itself die off in 1952, eventually succeeded by other national Black Catholic organizations such as the National Black Catholic Congress . Black Catholicism Roman Relations with: Black Catholicism or African-American Catholicism comprises
1008-640: A result of these advancements, the percentage of Black families living below the poverty line declined from 87% in 1940 to 47% by 1960 and to 30% by 1970. Populations increased so rapidly among both African-American migrants and new European immigrants that there were housing shortages in most major cities. With fewer resources, the newer groups were forced to compete for the oldest, most run-down housing. Ethnic groups created territories which they defended against change. Discrimination often restricted African Americans to crowded neighborhoods. The more established populations of cities tended to move to newer housing as it
1120-875: A return to New Orleans, where he lived in the archbishop's residence, until his death the next year. He was buried in St. Louis Cemetery #2 with the Black Catholics. In 1886, the Black Catholic Ohioan Daniel Rudd went national with a Black Catholic newspaper called the American Catholic Tribune (originally a local paper as the Ohio State Tribune ), which ran until 1899 in Cincinnati . Black Catholics continued to center primarily in what would become
1232-508: A small rural town 70 miles (110 km) southwest of Memphis . The race riots peaked in Chicago, with the most violence and death occurring there during the riots. The authors of The Negro in Chicago; a study of race relations and a race riot , an official report from 1922 on race relations in Chicago, came to the conclusion that there were many factors that led to the violent outbursts in Chicago. Principally, many Black workers had assumed
SECTION 10
#17327756033521344-593: Is the first layperson to be buried in the crypt below the main altar of Saint Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue , normally reserved for bishops of the Archdiocese of New York . The Oblate Sisters of Providence were founded by Haitian-American nun Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange and Fr James Nicholas Joubert in 1828 in Baltimore , in a time when black women were not allowed to join existing orders (which were all-white) and were thought to be unworthy of
1456-725: The African-American people, beliefs, and practices in the Catholic Church . There are around three million Black Catholics in the United States, making up 6% of the total population of African Americans, who are mostly Protestant , and 4% of American Catholics . Black Catholics in America are a heavily immigrant population, with 68% being born in the United States, and 12% were born in Africa , 11% were born in
1568-553: The Caribbean and 5% born in other parts of Central or South America. About a quarter of Black Catholics worship in historically black parishes , most of which were established during the Jim Crow era as a means of racial segregation . Others were established in black communities and merely reflected the surrounding population, while the most recent crop came about due to population displacement ( White flight ) during and after
1680-427: The Great Depression , more advances took place after workers in the steel and meatpacking industries organized into labor unions in the 1930s and 1940s, under the interracial Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The unions ended the segregation of many jobs, and African Americans began to advance into more skilled jobs and supervisory positions previously informally reserved for whites. Between 1940 and 1960,
1792-739: The Great Migration . Prior to the Second Vatican Council , Black Catholics attended Mass in Latin , as did the rest of the Western Church , and did not display much difference in terms of liturgy or spiritual patrimony. During the 1950s innovators such as Clarence Rivers began to integrate Negro spirituals into settings of the Mass ; this trend eventually blossomed into the so-called Black Catholic Movement during
1904-643: The Harlem Renaissance , which was also fueled by immigrants from the Caribbean, and the Chicago Black Renaissance . In her book The Warmth of Other Suns , Pulitzer Prize –winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson discusses the migration of "six million Black Southerners [moving] out of the terror of Jim Crow to an uncertain existence in the North and Midwest." The struggle of African-American migrants to adapt to Northern cities
2016-593: The Mississippi Delta to Chicago to escape racial discrimination. Muddy Waters , Chester Burnett , and Buddy Guy are among the most well-known blues artists who migrated to Chicago. Great Delta-born pianist Eddie Boyd told Living Blues magazine, "I thought of coming to Chicago where I could get away from some of that racism and where I would have an opportunity to, well, do something with my talent.... It wasn't peaches and cream [in Chicago], man, but it
2128-553: The Northeastern and Midwestern United States, growth of jobs in the " New South " and its lower cost of living , family and kinship ties, and lessening discrimination. The primary factors for migration among southern African Americans were segregation, indentured servitude , convict leasing , an increase in the spread of racist ideology, widespread lynching (nearly 3,500 African Americans were lynched between 1882 and 1968 ), and lack of social and economic opportunities in
2240-567: The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament , a religious order dedicated to serving the black and Native American communities, and went on to found and staff countless Black Catholic schools for that purpose. She was canonized in the year 2000. From the period immediately preceding Emancipation, various Catholic missions organizations began to dedicate themselves to the task of converting and ministering to black Americans, who were then for
2352-628: The Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area . One of these communities, in Norfolk, Virginia, founded St Joseph's Black Catholic Parish in 1889—later becoming known as the "Black basilica". That same year, Mother Mathilda Beasley , the first African-American nun to serve in Georgia , started a short-lived order of black nuns in Savannah . She would also go on to start one of the first orphanages in
SECTION 20
#17327756033522464-617: The poor for the rest of her life (always at night, to avoid embarrassing white people she served). Black Catholics would soon begin to organize at the national level as well, first as the Colored Catholic Congress in 1889 under the leadership of the aforementioned Daniel Rudd. Their inaugural gathering would include the audience of President Grover Cleveland and a Mass celebrated by Fr Tolton. This group would meet annually for five years before shuttering. In 1891, Philadelphia heiress Saint Katharine Drexel founded
2576-582: The 14 states of the South, especially Alabama , Mississippi , Louisiana , Texas , and Georgia . The Great Depression of the 1930s resulted in reduced migration because of decreased opportunities. With the defense buildup for World War II and with the post-war economic prosperity, migration was revived, with larger numbers of Black Americans leaving the South through the 1960s. This wave of migration often resulted in overcrowding of urban areas due to exclusionary housing policies meant to keep African-American families out of developing suburbs. For example, in
2688-642: The 1920s, New York's Harlem became a center of Black cultural life, influenced by the American migrants as well as new immigrants from the Caribbean area. Second-tier industrial cities that were destinations for numerous Black migrants were Buffalo , Rochester , Boston , Milwaukee , Minneapolis , Kansas City , Columbus , Cincinnati , Grand Rapids and Indianapolis , and smaller industrial cities such as Chester , Gary , Dayton , Erie , Toledo , Youngstown , Peoria , Muskegon , Newark , Flint , Saginaw , New Haven , and Albany . People tended to take
2800-470: The 1930s and 1940s, increasing mechanization of agriculture virtually brought the institution of sharecropping that had existed since the Civil War to an end in the United States causing many landless Black farmers to be forced off of the land. As a result, approximately 1.4 million Black southerners moved north or west in the 1940s, followed by 1.1 million in the 1950s, and another 2.4 million people in
2912-529: The 1960s and early 1970s. By the late 1970s, as deindustrialization and the Rust Belt crisis took hold, the Great Migration came to an end. But, in a reflection of changing economics, as well as the end of Jim Crow laws in the 1960s and improving race relations in the South, in the 1980s and early 1990s, more Black Americans were heading South than leaving that region. African Americans moved from
3024-523: The African-American labor activism continued. In the late summer and autumn of 1919, racial tensions became violent and came to be known as the Red Summer . This period of time was defined by violence and prolonged rioting between Black and White Americans in major United States cities. The reasons for this violence vary. Cities that were affected by the violence included Washington D.C. , Chicago, Omaha , Knoxville, Tennessee , and Elaine, Arkansas ,
3136-573: The Albany Inter-Racial Council and churches, helped them, but de facto segregation and discrimination remained well into the late 20th century. Migrants going to Pittsburgh and surrounding mill towns in western Pennsylvania between 1890 and 1930 faced racial discrimination and limited economic opportunities. The Black population in Pittsburgh jumped from 6,000 in 1880 to 27,000 in 1910. Many took highly paid, skilled jobs in
3248-551: The American South , making up the majority of the population in three Southern states, namely Louisiana (until about 1890 ), South Carolina (until the 1920s ), and Mississippi (until the 1930s ). But by the end of the Great Migration, just over half of the African-American population lived in the South, while a little less than half lived in the North and West. Moreover, the African-American population had become highly urbanized. In 1900, only one-fifth of African Americans in
3360-460: The Americas, and some scholars have suggested their common cultural heritage and shared faith led them to instigate at least one major rebellion in the colonial United States . The first African Catholic slaves that arrived in what would eventually become the United States primarily came during the period of Spanish colonization . Esteban , an African Catholic enslaved by Spaniards, was among
3472-659: The California region with a number of African and mulatto Catholics, including at least ten (and up to 26) of the recently re-discovered Los Pobladores , the 44 founders of Los Angeles in 1781. As more European nations became involved in the transatlantic slave trade , multiple colonial powers would join the Spanish in bringing African slaves to their colonies in North America . The French involvement would result in various new African Catholic communities, including
Federated Colored Catholics - Misplaced Pages Continue
3584-427: The Church. While the term "black" is often used in reference to any ( Sub-Saharan and/or dark-skinned ) African-descended person, the term in apposition to "Catholicism" is usually used to refer to African-Americans. This became solidified during the black pride movement of the late 60s and 70s, when blackness as an expressive cultural element became more and more popular in the public discourse. As " black " became
3696-405: The Church. One of them, James , would become in 1854 the first known African-American Catholic priest and the first such bishop in 1875. Another, Patrick , would in 1864 become the first black American to join a clerical religious order and the first black American Jesuit , in 1865 the first black American to earn a PhD, and in 1874 the first black president of a white or Catholic university in
3808-580: The FCC and the Josephites would eventually lead to the expulsion of FCC firebrand Marcellus Dorsey (brother of Josephite priest John Dorsey ) from the Knights of Peter Claver , a Black Catholic fraternal organization the Josephites helped found in 1909. Two White Jesuit priests, John LaFarge Jr. and William Markoe, later became major backers of and leaders in the FCC, eventually pushing the organization into
3920-618: The French no longer ruled the area) became notable for its degree of interracialism, in which much of Church life showed little to no racial discrimination . The same could not be said of the thirteen American colonies of British America , where Catholicism was less common and social strictures were more pronounced and harsh. There was little to no distinction made between free-born blacks (who were rare) and freedmen , and while Catholic slave owners in Colonial America were under
4032-410: The Great Migration, eventually gaining a measure of class mobility , but the migrants encountered significant forms of discrimination. Because so many people migrated in a short period of time, the African-American migrants were often resented by the urban European-American working class (many of whom were recent immigrants themselves); fearing their ability to negotiate rates of pay or secure employment,
4144-595: The Healy brothers). He went on to minister in Illinois, was declared Venerable in 2019, and could be declared a saint soon. Another Black Catholic from this era with an open cause for canonization , Servant of God Julia Greeley , was also born in Ralls County as a slave, before being taken to Denver in 1861. She converted to Catholicism in 1880, became a street evangelist and Secular Franciscan , and ministered to
4256-714: The Kongo and began to make converts and engage in trade; there was also some limited slave-trading between the European power and their new African colleagues. The Portuguese appetite for African slaves quickly grew beyond the intentions or capacity of the Kongolese people, leading to one Kongo ruler going so far as to write the Portuguese king for assistance in stemming the tide of citizens being taken captive from his land. Many of these victims would eventually be brought to
4368-567: The New York and northern New Jersey suburbs 67,000 mortgages were insured by the G.I. Bill , but fewer than 100 were taken out by non-whites. Big cities were the principal destinations of southerners throughout the two phases of the Great Migration. In the first phase, eight major cities attracted two-thirds of the migrants: New York and Chicago , followed in order by Philadelphia , St. Louis , Detroit , Kansas City , Pittsburgh , and Indianapolis . The Second great Black migration increased
4480-420: The North where other Black Americans had previously migrated. Per a 2021 study, "when one randomly chosen African American moved from a Southern birth town to a destination county, then 1.9 additional Black migrants made the same move on average." After moving from the environment of the south to the northern states, African Americans were inspired to be creative in different ways. The Great Migration resulted in
4592-574: The Oblates. Notably, due to racism her name and history was scrubbed from the IHM sisters' records for 160 years, until the early 1990s. In 1857, French Catholic priest Claude Paschal Maistre obtained faculties from Archbishop of New Orleans Antoine Blanc to pastor the city's newly created interracial Francophone parish, St Rose of Lima . There he ministered to a French-speaking congregation, encouraging them to form mutual aid societies (not unlike
Federated Colored Catholics - Misplaced Pages Continue
4704-467: The South in 1916 through 1918 to take advantage of a labor shortage in industrial cities during the First World War. In 1910, the African-American population of Detroit was 6,000. The Great Migration, along with immigrants from southern and eastern Europe as well as their descendants, rapidly turned the city into the country's fourth-largest. By the start of the Great Depression in 1929,
4816-503: The South were living in urban areas. By 1960, half of the African Americans in the South lived in urban areas, and by 1970, more than 80% of African Americans nationwide lived in cities. In 1991, Nicholas Lemann wrote: The Great Migration was one of the largest and most rapid mass internal movements in history—perhaps the greatest not caused by the immediate threat of execution or starvation. In sheer numbers, it outranks
4928-519: The South. There were many advantages for Northern jobs compared to Southern jobs including wages that could be double or more. The southern sharecropping system, an agricultural depression, the widespread infestation of the cotton boll weevil , and flooding also provided motivation for African Americans to move into the Northern Cities. The South's pervasive exclusion of African Americans from political power, their lack of representation, and
5040-543: The South. Some factors pulled migrants to the north, such as labor shortages in northern factories brought about by World War I, resulting in thousands of jobs in steel mills, railroads, meatpacking plants, and the automobile industry. The pull of jobs in the north was strengthened by the efforts of labor agents sent by northern businessmen to recruit southern workers. Northern companies offered special incentives to encourage Black workers to relocate, including free transportation and low-cost housing. During World War I , there
5152-618: The Southern states. The defense industry in Louisville reached a peak of roughly over 80,000 employment. At first, job availability was not open for African Americans, but the growing need for jobs in the defense industry and the Fair Employment Practices Committee sign by Franklin D. Roosevelt , the Southern industries began to accept African Americans into the workplace. Migration patterns reflected network ties. Black Americans tended to go to locations in
5264-791: The US ( Georgetown University ). Other than these three, there are not known to have been any other Black Catholic priests in America between the first African Catholic contact in 1509 (in Puerto Rico) and the ordination of the first openly - Black Catholic priest in 1886. After the Emancipation Proclamation, African-American Catholics became a single class of free black people, though the degree to which that freedom could be actualized varied. In places such as Louisiana , old habits of separation between blacks born free and those born into slavery remained, which functioned partially on
5376-598: The US for African-American girls. Other areas also counted Black Catholics, including Missouri , which—also in 1889—produced the nation's first openly-Black Catholic priest, Augustus Tolton . Born a slave in Ralls County , he, his siblings and his mother found freedom in Illinois ; he would later, with the help of supportive American bishops and Vatican officials, attend seminary and be ordained in Europe (not unlike
5488-400: The United States. During this period a number of Black Catholics would make a name for themselves, including Venerable Pierre Toussaint , a Haitian-American born into slavery and brought to New York shortly after the founding of the United States. Freed by his owner in 1807, he would go on to become a famous hairdresser, as well as a notable philanthropist alongside his wife Juliette . He
5600-438: The basis of colorism but also on grounds of class, privilege , wealth, and social status . When parishes in places like New Orleans began to transition from the French tradition of interracialism to the American habit of strict racial segregation , Creoles (who tended to descend from free people of color) often resisted the move so as not to lose their elevated status as the more privileged milieu of African-Americans. Upon
5712-625: The biggest increases in the early part of the twentieth century. Tens of thousands of Black workers were recruited for industrial jobs, such as positions related to the expansion of the Pennsylvania Railroad . Because changes were concentrated in cities, which had also attracted millions of new or recent European immigrants, tensions rose as the people competed for jobs and scarce housing. Tensions were often most severe between ethnic Irish, defending their recently gained positions and territory, and recent immigrants and Black people. With
SECTION 50
#17327756033525824-520: The causes of the mass migration from the South during the preceding decade, especially to Kansas, where many sought refuge. In 1900, about 90% of Black Americans still lived in Southern states. Between 1910 and 1930, the African-American population increased by about 40% in Northern states as a result of the migration, mostly in the major cities. The cities of Philadelphia , Detroit , Chicago , Cleveland , Baltimore , and New York City had some of
5936-561: The cheapest rail ticket possible and go to areas where they had relatives and friends. For example, many people from Mississippi moved directly north by train to Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Louis, from Alabama to Cleveland and Detroit, from Georgia and South Carolina to New York City , Baltimore , Washington D.C. and Philadelphia , and in the second migration, from Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi to Oakland , Los Angeles , Portland , Phoenix , Denver , and Seattle . Educated African Americans were better able to obtain jobs after
6048-403: The city of Chicago." The "Black Belt" geographical and racial isolation of this community, bordered to the north and east by whites, and to the south and west by industrial sites and ethnic immigrant neighborhoods, made it a site for the study of the development of an urban Black community. For urbanized people, eating proper foods in a sanitary, civilized setting such as the home or a restaurant
6160-412: The city's African-American population had increased to 120,000. In 1900–01, Chicago had a total population of 1,754,473. By 1920, the city had added more than 1 million residents. During the second wave of the Great Migration (1940–60), the African-American population in the city grew from 278,000 to 813,000. The flow of African Americans to Ohio, particularly to Cleveland , changed the demographics of
6272-647: The dawn of the Transatlantic Slave Trade , Catholic Christianity in West Africa—the region that would produce virtually all of the individuals ending up in America as slaves—was primarily limited to converts borne from early European missionary contact , especially in the Kongo region. Roughly a century before Europe made contact with what would become the United States, the Portuguese entered
6384-592: The earliest converts to Christianity, including Mark the Evangelist , the unnamed Ethiopian eunuch , Simon of Cyrene , and Simeon Niger . Several of the early Church Fathers were also native to Africa, including Clement of Alexandria , Origen , Tertullian , Athanasius , Cyril of Alexandria , Cyprian , and Augustine . Saints Perpetua and Felicity and Saint Maurice (as well as his military regiment ), early martyrs, were also African. There have also been three African popes : Victor I , Melchaides (also
6496-435: The end of his studies (and after a series of discouraging indications and comments from his superiors), he dropped out of seminary in 1862, claiming that he longer felt he had a priestly vocation . At least three Black Catholics ( the Healy brothers ) were ordained priests prior to the Emancipation Proclamation, though all three passed for white throughout their lives. Their race was known only to select mentors of theirs in
6608-471: The ethnic whites felt threatened by the influx of new labor competition. Sometimes those who were most fearful or resentful were the last immigrants of the 19th and new immigrants of the 20th century. African Americans made substantial gains in industrial employment, particularly in the steel, automobile, shipbuilding, and meatpacking industries. Between 1910 and 1920, the number of Black workers employed in industry nearly doubled from 500,000 to 901,000. After
6720-532: The first Black Catholic parish in D.C., which runs D.C.'s oldest black school and is considered the "Mother Church of Black Catholics". In 1863, the Jesuits helped a black congregation (then meeting in the basement of their St. Ignatius Church ) purchase a building, which would then become known as St. Francis Xavier Church —the "first Catholic church in the United States for the use of an all-colored congregation". (Other Catholic churches also lay claim to being
6832-416: The first Black parish in America, including the interracial but mostly Black congregations of St. Augustine Catholic Church in New Orleans and another by the same name founded in 1829 in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana .) A Black Catholic, William Augustine Williams , would enter seminary in 1853, albeit in Rome due to the ongoing prohibition of black seminarians and priests in the United States. Near
SECTION 60
#17327756033526944-407: The first European groups to enter the region in 1528, via what would become Florida. He would go on to serve on various other North American expeditions. The Afro-Spanish conquistador Juan Garrido entered Puerto Rico in 1509, helping to conquer it for the white Spanish settlers. African Catholics, slave and free, were also among the Spanish settlers who established the Mission Nombre de Dios in
7056-437: The first Great Migration, for example, ended up in Chicago , while those from Virginia tended to move to Philadelphia . For the most part, these patterns were related to geography (i.e. longitude), with the closest cities attracting the most migrants (such as Los Angeles and San Francisco receiving a disproportionate number of migrants from Texas and Louisiana). When multiple destinations were equidistant, chain migration played
7168-491: The first and oldest Catholic nursing home in the United States, Lafon Nursing Facility , in 1841. That same year and in the same city, St Augustine's Catholic Church , the nation's oldest Black Catholic church, was founded by free blacks in the nation's oldest black neighborhood ( Treme ). In 1843, Haitian-American Catholics in Baltimore established the Society of the Holy Family , a 200-member devotional group dedicated to Bible study , prayer , and especially singing. It
7280-425: The founding of the Society of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart , most commonly known today as the Josephites. Slattery was named the first Superior general and Fr Uncles was among the founding members, another first for a Black Catholic. Slattery founded the Josephite Harvest , the society's missions magazine, in 1888; it remains the longest-running such publication in the United States. Racism within and outside of
7392-445: The jobs of white men who went to go fight in World War I. As the war ended in 1918, many men returned home to find out their jobs had been taken by Black men who were willing to work for far less. By the time the rioting and violence had subsided in Chicago, 38 people had lost their lives, with 500 more injured. Additionally, $ 250,000 worth of property was destroyed, and over a thousand persons were left homeless. In other cities across
7504-474: The larger Black Power zeitgeist of the late 60s and 70s. Some have termed this period the "Black Catholic Revolution" or the "Black Catholic Revolt". As this newfound Black Consciousness swept up many black clergy, consecrated religious , and laypeople , Black Catholicism came of age. Entire disciplines of Black Catholic studies emerged, Gospel Mass became a staple of Black Catholic parishes, Black Christian spirituality (formerly seen as Protestant )
7616-414: The late 19th century, Black Catholics in New Orleans began to join with Whites and other activists to oppose segregation, with the Crescent City being one of the few American locales to have previously experienced a much more interracial climate (this being while under French and Spanish rule). In 1892, the Citizen's Committee of New Orleans (French: "Comité des Citoyens") organized direct action against
7728-549: The late 19th century, and to a continuing extent thereafter.) The FCC's main target in this regard was the Society of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart , a mostly White order that ministered specifically to African-Americans. At the FCC's meeting in 1928 in Cincinnati , several of the first openly Black Catholic priests were mentioned in the program, including Frs Augustus Tolton , John Henry Dorsey , SSJ; Charles Uncles , SSJ; Stephen Theobald , Norman Dukette ; Joseph A. John , SMA; and Augustine Derricks, OSST. The clashes between
7840-401: The loss of leaving their homes in the South, and the barriers faced by the migrants in their new homes, the migration was an act of individual and collective agency , which changed the course of American history, a "declaration of independence" written by their actions. From the earliest U.S. population statistics in 1780 until 1910 , more than 90% of the African-American population lived in
7952-404: The main cash crop — but had been devastated by the arrival of the boll weevil . In 1910, African Americans constituted the majority of the population of South Carolina and Mississippi, and more than 40% in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas; by 1970, only in Mississippi did the African-American population constitute more than 30% of the state's total. "The disappearance of the 'black belt'
8064-509: The mid-16th century in what is now St. Augustine, Florida . Soon after, the newly established Spanish Florida territory was attracting numerous fugitive slaves from the Thirteen Colonies . The Spanish freed slaves who reached their territory if they converted to Catholicism. Most such freedmen settled at Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose (Fort Mose), the first settlement of freed slaves in North America. Spain also settled
8176-502: The migrants concentrated in the big cities of the north and west, their influence was magnified in those places. Cities that had been virtually all white at the start of the century became centers of Black culture and politics by mid-century. Residential segregation and redlining led to concentrations of Black people in certain areas. The northern "Black metropolises" developed an important infrastructure of newspapers, businesses, jazz clubs, churches, and political organizations that provided
8288-484: The migration of African Americans northward and the mixing of White and Black workers in factories, the tension was building, largely driven by White workers. The AFL, the American Federation of Labor , advocated the separation between European Americans and African Americans in the workplace. There were non-violent protests such as walk-outs in protest of having Blacks and Whites working together. As tension
8400-423: The migration of any other ethnic group— Italians or Irish or Jews or Poles —to the United States. For Black people, the migration meant leaving what had always been their economic and social base in America and finding a new one. Some historians differentiate between a first Great Migration (1910–40), which saw about 1.6 million people move from mostly rural areas in the South to northern industrial cities, and
8512-494: The migration was amplified because the migrants, for the most part, moved to the then-largest cities in the United States ( New York City , Chicago , Detroit , Los Angeles , San Francisco , Philadelphia , Cleveland , and Washington, D.C. ) at a time when those cities had a central cultural, social, political, and economic influence over the United States; there, African Americans established culturally influential communities of their own. According to Isabel Wilkerson , despite
8624-824: The military-led reacquisition of St Rose by Odin in early 1864. Maistre, unfazed, inaugurated an illicit Black Catholic parish called Holy Name of Jesus , whose supporters Odin came to despise. Maistre continued to publicly advocate for radical causes, including the commemoration of John Brown's rebellion , the freeing of the slaves, and Lincoln's assassination , while also advocating for black citizenship and voting rights (which were briefly granted in Louisiana, beginning in 1868). After Odin's death in 1870, New Orleans' next prelate, Napoléon Perché , restored Maistre's faculties, closed Holy Name of Jesus, and reassigned him to St. Lawrence (in relatively remote Terrebonne Parish ). He would serve there until 1874, when health issues forced
8736-593: The most common descriptor for African-Americans (replacing "negro"), so "Black Catholic" became the most common moniker for their Catholic adherents. Developments in the expression of Catholicism among Black Catholics (especially within their own Catholic institutions) eventually led to a more independent identity within the Church, such that terms like "Black Catholicism" and "the Black Catholic Church" became more and more commonplace. Catholic Christianity among African -descended people has its roots in
8848-549: The most famous, in Louisiana (specifically New Orleans ). Here, slaves, affranchi (former slaves) and free people of color (blacks born free) formed a unique hierarchy within the larger American caste system, in which free people of color enjoyed the most privilege (and some even passed for white ) and slaves the least—though more phenotypically black individuals faced various prejudices whether they were slave or free. Even so, French Catholicism (and its influence after
8960-579: The most of notable of which emerged in Ethiopia (then Aksum ). Around this same era, however, there were also three Nubian Christian kingdoms , all of which were conquered and left little trace of their former glory; scholars have since recovered some of their history. Due to the Chalcedonian Schism in the 5th century, however, most of this Eastern (African) Christianity became divorced from Catholicism very early on. Immediately prior to
9072-472: The most part held in slavery. Upon their gaining freedom, they became even more of a target, as a group now more freely able to choose their religious persuasion and activities. Chief among these missionaries were the Mill Hill Fathers , a British religious order that operated in America largely as a black missions organization. As part of their efforts, they recruited a number of candidates for
9184-439: The move to Western Pennsylvania. They formed migration clubs, pooled their money, bought tickets at reduced rates, and often moved ingroups. Before they made the decision to move, they gathered information and debated the pros and cons of the process.... In barbershops, poolrooms, and grocery stores, in churches, lodge halls, and clubhouses, and in private homes, Black people who lived in the South discussed, debated, and decided what
9296-473: The much-publicized progressivism of French Catholic clergy in his homeland, President Lincoln , and local Afro-Creole activists. In 1858, a group of free Black Catholics in Washington, D.C. opted out of their segregated status at St Matthew's cathedral (where they were forced to worship in the basement) and founded St Augustine Catholic Church (originally called St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church),
9408-768: The nation many more had been affected by the violence of the Red Summer . The Red Summer enlightened many to the growing racial tension in America. The violence in these major cities prefaced the soon to follow Harlem Renaissance , an African-American cultural revolution, in the 1920s. Racial violence appeared again in Chicago in the 1940s and in Detroit as well as other cities in the Northeast as racial tensions over housing and employment discrimination grew. James Gregory calculates decade-by-decade migration volumes in his book The Southern Diaspora. Black migration picked up from
9520-513: The number of Black people in managerial and administrative occupations doubled, along with the number of Black people in white-collar occupations, while the number of Black agricultural workers in 1960 fell to one-fourth of what it was in 1940. Also, between 1936 and 1959, Black income relative to white income more than doubled in various skilled trades. Despite employment discrimination , Black people had higher labor force participation rates than whites in every U.S. Census from 1890 to 1950. As
9632-500: The official announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, Fr Maistre immediately desegregated St Rose's sacramental records —defying archdiocesan policy. A few months later, he celebrated a Mass championing Lincoln's edict, effectively ejecting his racist white parishioners and drawing death threats (including one from a fellow priest). Abp Odin scolded Maistre for inciting "the love of liberty and independence" among slaves—eventually suspending him from ministry and placing
9744-628: The one in Baltimore), including La Société des Soeurs de la Providence . After the breakout of the Civil War a few years later and the subsequent occupation of New Orleans , Maistre and his new bishop Jean-Marie Odin clashed over the race issue, as Odin supported the Confederacy and Maistre the Union . The pastor promoted increasingly radical positions (including abolitionism ), fueled by
9856-737: The opposite occurred, and the US Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that segregation was in fact legal nationwide. The decision would cast a dark shadow on the Black freedom struggle for the next 60 years. Great Migration (African American) The Great Migration , sometimes known as the Great Northward Migration or the Black Migration , was the movement of six million African Americans out of
9968-544: The parish under interdict (making it a mortal sin to continue associating with Maistre sacramentally). Maistre defied the order(s), officiating—among other services—the funeral of Black Catholic Union Army Cpt André Cailloux , defiantly attended by many of the priest's admirers. Members of the mutual aid society Maistre helped found would thereafter petition the archbishop for a Black Catholic parish named after "St. Abraham Lincoln". This request naturally went unfulfilled, and white-friendly Unionist agendas eventually led to
10080-413: The population in 1910 to about 30% by 1970. The growing Black presence outside the South changed the dynamics and demographics of numerous cities in the Northeast, Midwest, and West. In 1900, only 740,000 African Americans lived outside the South, just 8% of the nation's total Black population. By 1970, more than 10.6 million African Americans lived outside the South, 47% of the nation's total. Because
10192-523: The populations of these cities while adding others as destinations, including the Western states . Western cities such as Los Angeles , San Francisco , Oakland , Phoenix , Denver , Seattle , and Portland also attracted African Americans in large numbers. There were clear migratory patterns that linked particular states and cities in the South to corresponding destinations in the North and West. Almost half of those who migrated from Mississippi during
10304-489: The priesthood, including an African-American named Charles Uncles . He would go on to become, in 1891, the first Black Catholic priest ordained in the United States. By 1893, the head of the Mill Hill society's American operations, Fr John R. Slattery , had convinced the Mill Hill superior to let the American wing spin off into its own religious society dedicated totally to African-American ministry. This would result in
10416-447: The rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast , Midwest , and West between 1910 and 1970. It was substantially caused by poor economic and social conditions due to prevalent racial segregation and discrimination in the Southern states where Jim Crow laws were upheld. In particular, continued lynchings motivated a portion of the migrants, as African Americans searched for social reprieve. The historic change brought by
10528-632: The same mandate as any Catholics in that they were obligated to convert, baptize , and meet the spiritual needs of their slaves, they were not under any local government codes to the same effect ( as were the French) and often neglected their duties in this regard. After the Revolutionary War and the exit of France and Spain from most of North America, Black Catholics in America faced an increasingly unique situation as African-Americans living in slavery and after emancipation , segregation in
10640-435: The society would sour the priestly experience for Fr Uncles, and he considered himself no longer a member of the order by the time of his death in 1933. For this and various other reasons, Fr Slattery would eventually resign from his post, the priesthood, and eventually apostatize from the Church altogether in 1906. Subsequent Josephite superiors would scarcely accept or ordain blacks, and this lasted for several decades. In
10752-405: The spiritual task. Mother Lange has since been declared a Servant of God and could soon be declared a saint . Dedicated to providing education to otherwise neglected black youths, the order would found the all-girls St Frances Academy in the same year as their founding, the first and oldest continually-operating Black Catholic school in the US. The Oblates' 11th member, Anne Marie Becraft ,
10864-421: The staging ground for new forms of racial politics and new forms of Black culture. As a result of the Great Migration, the first large urban Black communities developed in northern cities beyond New York, Boston, Baltimore, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia, which had Black communities even before the Civil War, and attracted migrants after the war. It is conservatively estimated that 400,000 African Americans left
10976-404: The start of the new century, with 204,000 leaving in the first decade. The pace accelerated with the outbreak of World War I and continued through the 1920s. By 1930, there were 1.3 million former southerners living in other regions. The Great Depression wiped out job opportunities in the northern industrial belt, especially for African Americans, and caused a sharp reduction in migration. In
11088-582: The state and its primary industrial city. Before the Great Migration, an estimated 1.1% to 1.6% of Cleveland's population was African American. By 1920, 4.3% of Cleveland's population was African American. The number of African Americans in Cleveland continued to rise over the next 20 years of the Great Migration. Other northeastern and midwestern industrial cities, such as Philadelphia, New York City, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Omaha, also had dramatic increases in their African-American populations. By
11200-660: The steel mills. Pittsburgh's Black population increased to 37,700 in 1920 (6.4% of the total) while the Black element in Homestead, Rankin, Braddock, and others nearly doubled. They succeeded in building effective community responses that enabled the survival of new communities. Historian Joe Trotter explains the decision process: Although African-Americans often expressed their views of the Great Migration in biblical terms and received encouragement from northern Black newspapers, railroad companies, and industrial labor agents, they also drew upon family and friendship networks to help in
11312-404: The streetcar companies in the city in an attempt to force the courts to take action. This involved Homer Plessy , a light-skinned biracial Black Catholic (and member of St. Augustine Church ), boarding a Whites-only streetcar, informing the operator that he was Black, and being arrested. The Committee hoped that, as the resulting court case advanced, segregation laws would be overturned. Instead,
11424-470: The war effort, such as Ford Motor Company converting its plant to produce military jeeps. The company Hillerich & Bradsby initially made baseball bats and then converted their production into making gunstocks. During the war, there was a shortage of workers in the defense industry. African Americans took the opportunity to fill in the industries' missing jobs during the war, around 4.3 million intrastate migration and 2.1 million interstate migration in
11536-404: Was a decline in European immigrants, which slowed the supply of workers for Northern factories. Around 1.2 million European immigrants arrived during 1914 while only 300,000 arrived the next year. The enlistment of workers into the military had also affected the labor supply. This created a wartime opportunity in the North for African Americans, as the Northern industry sought a new labor supply from
11648-476: Was a hell of a lot better than down there where I was born." The Great Migration drained off much of the rural Black population of the South, and for a time, froze or reduced African-American population growth in parts of the region. The migration changed the demographics in a number of states; there were decades of Black population decline, especially across the Deep South " black belt " where cotton had been
11760-636: Was also claimed by Black Catholics, and the Black Catholic Church emerged as a significant player in the public and ecclesial life of the larger American Church . A large exodus of African-American Catholics (alongside other Catholics in America) during the 1970s was followed by a continually shrinking population of African Americans within the Catholic Church in the 21st century. A 2021 Pew Research study noted that only just over half of Black American adults who were raised Catholic still remain in
11872-759: Was building due to advocating for segregation in the workplace, violence soon erupted. In 1917, the East St. Louis riot , known for one of the bloodiest workplace riots, had between 40 and 200 killed and over 6000 African Americans displaced from their homes. The NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People , responded to the violence with a march known as the Silent March . More than 10,000 African-American men and women demonstrated in Harlem, New York. Conflicts continued post World War I, as African Americans continued to face conflicts and tension while
11984-641: Was developing in the outskirts. Mortgage discrimination and redlining in inner city areas limited the newer African-American migrants' ability to determine their own housing, or obtain a fair price. In the long term, the National Housing Act of 1934 contributed to limiting the availability of loans to urban areas, particularly those areas inhabited by African Americans. Migrants going to Albany, New York found poor living conditions and employment opportunities, but also higher wages and better schools and social services. Local organizations such as
12096-432: Was good and what was bad about moving to the urban North. In cities such as Newark, New York and Chicago, African Americans became increasingly integrated into society. As they lived and worked more closely with European Americans, the divide became increasingly indefinite. This period marked the transition for many African Americans from lifestyles as rural farmers to urban industrial workers. This migration gave birth to
12208-488: Was one of the striking effects" of the Great Migration, James Gregory wrote. In Mississippi, the Black American population decreased from about 56% of the population in 1910 to about 37% by 1970, remaining the majority only in some Delta counties. In Georgia, Black Americans decreased from about 45% of the population in 1910 to about 26% by 1970. In South Carolina, the Black population decreased from about 55% of
12320-833: Was quite probably the illicit granddaughter of Charles Carroll , the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. She started Georgetown Seminary , a school for black girls, in 1820 at age 15 (twelve years before joining the order). The Sisters of the Holy Family , founded in New Orleans in 1837 by Mother Henriette Delille , was similar in origin and purpose to the Oblates, though founded by and made up of Creole free women of color (i.e., mixed-race women who were never enslaved). They too dedicated themselves to education and have operated St. Mary's Academy in New Orleans since its founding in 1867. They also founded
12432-582: Was the first Black Catholic lay group in the US. The group would disband after two years when the archdiocese refused to let them use their large meeting hall. In 1845, one of the founding members of the Oblate sisters, Theresa Maxis Duchemin , helped found a predominantly-white order of sisters in Michigan, the IHM congregation. She had been the first US-born Black Catholic religious sister when she helped found
12544-471: Was the subject of Jacob Lawrence 's Migration Series of paintings, created when he was a young man in New York. Exhibited in 1941 at the Museum of Modern Art, Lawrence's Series attracted wide attention; he was quickly perceived as one of the most important African-American artists of the time. The Great Migration had effects on music as well as other cultural subjects. Many blues singers migrated from
#351648