February 09, 2010
 
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| Faith in the Time of Jim Crow |
| by Arturo Vasquez |
| 8/03/09 |
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Over my fried alligator and onion rings at a restaurant outside New Orleans, Mr. and Mrs. G. spoke of their lives growing up in segregated southern Louisiana. The conversation was light and nostalgic until I brought up the issue of what the relationship was like in their childhood between "Creoles of color" and Cajuns. Mr. G., not at all in a bitter tone, said that the relationship was practically non-existent: Cajuns would not have anything to do with them because they were black.
Then he proceeded to tell anecdotes that many African Americans who grew up under Jim Crow can recount: having to use different bathrooms from whites, having to eat outside in the rain at a restaurant even if there was seating inside, not being able to go into certain parts of town, etc. The most heartbreaking stories for any Catholic, however, are the stories of the Church's collaboration with this form of segregation. In some places there were separate churches for both blacks and whites. In others, however, they attended the same church, but barely saw each other; the blacks had to make sure that white Mass-goers never noticed them.
Perhaps the most unfortunate story I heard about black Catholics during these times comes from Ms. Eunice, a friend of Mr. G.'s who is now a Catholic lay oblate. In her town growing up, there was only one church, but she and other black Catholics were not allowed to sit down during Mass. There were a few benches in the back that constituted the "colored" section, but if white parishioners needed to sit in those benches for some reason, the few black parishioners who could sit had to cede their place -- even if pregnant, old, or otherwise infirm. What's more, the black members of the congregation had to come late and leave early so that white Catholics didn't have to see them. They had to depart after the final blessing and be across the bayou by the time the rest of the congregation exited the church. Those who could not rush across the bridge and be out of sight of white churchgoers when they came out of Mass were subject to a severe beating.
It would be a mistake to say that such actions characterized the perennial attitudes of the old, provincial South. The system of racial separation that we now know as Jim Crow in many places did not really take affect until the late-19th and early-20th centuries. In the case of Mr. G.'s family, as "Creoles of color" or "mixed race," they were well aware of who their white relatives were; his mother, born in 1920, still remembers being baptized in the one Catholic church in town and going over to play with her white cousins on Sundays. It was only in her late childhood that the strict codes of racial apartheid began to be taken seriously in all circumstances.
In terms of religion, it was on one Sunday that her family was told that they were not allowed to come to Mass at their church anymore. They and other Creoles had to scramble to build another church and find priests who would minister to them. This was often not easy, since most of the all-white clergy didn't want to serve them. In many cases, it was only members of religious congregations like the Holy Ghost Fathers, set up to do missionary work in the "pagan" world, who would come and service their churches. As in the case of Ms. Eunice's church, these situations were often framed by violence and threats of violence. When one priest suggested in the early 1970s that the congregations should integrate and go to Mass together, his own parishioners beat him to within an inch of his life.
Most of the "resistance" to Jim Crow when it came to the Church, however, was done by a rebellion of the feet. Driving through rural Louisiana and seeing many of the black Protestant churches now present there, it's easy to forget that many of those congregation's ancestors were probably Catholic at some point. Instead of putting up with the idea of having to sit in the back of the church, or trying to organize their own church and finding a white priest who would administer the sacraments to them, many left Catholicism altogether and sought refuge in the black Protestant churches as something that could be truly and unequivocally theirs. In places like New Orleans, there was also the emergence of the black spiritual churches, which incorporated Catholic ritual and imagery into a Pentecostal-style worship service. The Catholic Church lost many souls because it chose to go along with Jim Crow, seeking not to upset the status quo even when it came to the seating arrangements of its own churches. To those who did not leave, who stuck with it in spite of the brutality and bigotry, it must have been difficult at times to see that this was indeed the Church that Jesus Christ founded. It is one thing to be persecuted by those outside the Church who seek to shutter your buildings and make you renounce Christ and His Church; it's quite another for people within the Church, those other members of the Body of Christ, to persecute you and tell you that you are not wanted there. It would be difficult forus to keep the faith in those circumstances.
These stories reminded me of my now-deceased grandmother, who once told her children not to be bitter toward their father who regularly abused her. My father told me that this was not out of some overly pious sentiment of "carrying her cross" as a battered wife or due to some masochism akin to Stockholm Syndrome, but rather that she did not want her children to be consumed by the hatred of their father. In the end, if they could not have enough respect for their father to not hate him, they would never be able to lead a normal life or love someone else deeply and truly. It is something akin to this suffering love -- enduring, persevering, and dignified -- that I think Catholic Creoles demonstrated in the face of Jim Crow.
It was not a sign of weakness that they stayed in the Church, standing in the back, and slipping out before the end of the service so that white Catholics would not have to see them. It was the attitude of the apostles in the face of the crowd's unbelief: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life" (Jn 6:68). But it also, no doubt, had the spirit of another of Our Lord's sayings:
All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do ye not; for they say, and do not (Mt 23:3).
Such is the spirit of real Christianity in the face of injustice and hatred. I could not help but feel great admiration for those who loved in spite of rejection, who fought the good fight and stayed the course. Their stories are indeed great examples of faith -- ones that must be remembered both as a pillar of edification for us in our own trials, and as a warning against the evils that man is capable of committing, even within the walls of the Church itself.
Arturo Vasquez is a writer and independent researcher in New Orleans, Louisiana. He blogs regularly at Reditus: A Chronicle of Aesthetic Christianity. Readers have left 12 comments. The Church was also segregated in Mexico, where there was a section in the churches for those of European ancestry and another section for those of Native ancestry. Thank GOD all of that is past us now and we worship together, as we are all created equal in the eyese of our Lord. Written by Christine Very good article. I have been to many of the rural areas of Louisiana you refer to. To this day many towns have a white Catholic church and a black Catholic church. The Holy Ghost Fathers as well as the Society of the Divine Word continue to serve and maintain churches in the state. While the segregation isn't as severe there remains a kind of separation. Written by RK Funny hoe you never read of such things on the pop-apologetics websites! Would someone please explain to me how on God's green earth the "official church" ever justified this kind of racial discrimination? Documentation would be appreciated. It's one thing to have sinful individuals acting on their own, but by the looks of it the official church gave its blessings to such racism.  Written by Eric Giunta Very interesting and important article. You mention a priest whose "parishoners beat him to within an inch of his life." Where did this take place? What was the priest's name? What happened afterwards? The racism practiced by the Catholics t that time foreshadows the tolerance for abortion that now exists in much of Catholic America. Perhaps the "respectable" members of society were at fault then, as they are now? For example, V-P Biden, Sen. Durbin, Rep. Pelosi, and the others. Written by Dan Deeny Despite consolidation and closures, there still are quite a few churches in local towns that supported specific ethnic communities. The Italian Catholic church still stands just across the tracks from the German Catholic church. The Irish established St Micheal's in my old neighborhood, and I'm not sure how welcome my ancestors would have been in any of them. It was a blessing to attend Catholic school to pray and learn with the great grandchildren of the families that built those churches though. I realize that this isn't anything as terrible as Catholics following Jim Crow, but we often don't see our brothers and sisters in Christ as they really are. Written by Chuck M Wow, this is really sad, but also inspiring in a way. How could these people have kept their faith in these circumstances? It is surely only by the grace of God. May we follow their heroic example. As for the comment: "Funny hoe [sic] you never read of such things on the pop-apologetics websites!" I wonder why you would read our sins listed on a site designed to defend and promote the faith? Do we, for example, enumerate our numerous failings at a job interview? Do we elaborately confess our lustful desires on a first date? Does an advertiser remind consumers that its product gave people food poisoning last year? Apologetics is aimed at defending and selling the faith. This article is more of an act of humility, recognizing our errors, reminding never to repeat the same mistakes, and to always work for orthodox reform and renewal. It is the kind of preaching one must do "to the choir," not the kind of material one uses in an argument. Written by Nathan Cushman This article reminds us that while we strive to do better, we are not perfect, and in our past there are things that we are not proud of. Of course, the Protestants engaged in this behavior as well [not to justify it, but put it in perspective]. Written by Austin "Apologetics is aimed at defending and selling the faith." The faith is not a product to be sold, and deception by omission is still deception. I think Catholic evangelism should directly address the historical crimes of the institutional church, which are many. Minimizing the dark side, from sex abuse to cooperation with segregation, is like giving church history a combover -- it only makes it look worse. Written by Adrian I'm confident that if asked the questions, the apologists would research history and shed light on what happened and how soon the Official Church acted to rectify the problems. I'm reading a book 'Black and Catholic in the Jim Crow South.' Although I'm not done, it does state that the churches in the South were told to stop the segregation and mistreatments. One in Natchez, Mississippi was the seat of the NAACP and the church was the headquarters were black went to register to vote at their peril as well as the peril of the white priest and parishioners that supported them. Protestant blacks had admirable reflections of the church in the face of Jim Crow. For sure, the Catholic Church was more of an advocate for desegration than Protestant denominations... At the very least we have the magisterium that gets things corrected when they do go wrong. We have the Holy Spirit on our side, don't doubt Our Lord's promise. I'm so thankful to God for that. Written by Marie Just to clarify: This post wasn't at all an attempt to attack the Church, but rather the behavior of certain people in the Church. But it wasn't even about that: it was to celebrate the Faith of those who stuck it out through such tough times. Everybody pretty much dropped the ball on this one. But out of such suffering is true beauty born. Let us just be thankful that we have moved past all this, and be vigilant regarding other situations in which something like this can arise. It should be pointed out that it was indeed the Catholic Church in Louisiana that fought hardest to desegregate when the time finally came, even to the point of excommunication for staunch segregationists. Written by Arturo Vasquez I lived in Southern Louisiana 8 of my first 17 years of life. St. Basil's Academy grade school, three years, in Plaquemine, Louisiana, Landry Memorial (Christian Brothers), Lake Charles, Louisiana, five years, 8th grage through high school. I was not much aware of conditions in my grade school years. But, at the Christian Brothers school, the good Christian Brothers made sure we understood that the Black folks were just a loved as the White folks, and that we were all equal before God. The priests that spoke to us, emphasized that as well. When I was at Louisiana State University, I recall the Bishop's statement condemning segregation as something evil and with the Supreme Court decision, was over as far as any Catholic institutions were concerned. In New Orleans, many Catholics tried an economic boycott. That was broken up by the rectories going to unlisted numbers & only the financial contributors had the phone numbers to call in case some one was dying. When I was working in the Midwest, and was chastised for the evil things going on in the South, I would bring up some things, that would be dismissed as "Oh, you are from Southern Louisiana, French area, and that isn't the real South." Grant once commented the North did the South a big favor, whipping them, and ending slavery, as the South could never amount to much under the yoke of slavery. I would take that one step further, the South could not rise again with only white males (maybe one fourth of the population) being the only ones with rights. The reason segregation ended, was not fear of the federal troops. I believe it was because most White Southerners knew in their hearts it was morally evil, and, with the Supreme Court decision, against the law. I like Indiana much better. You can have your own ideas with less hostility from those who disagree. In the South, everyone had to fit in, or else! Written by George H. Morgan NOT all Catholic clergy colluded in this discriminatory and inhumane system- Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos of the Redemptorists(1819-1867), one of my patron saints- for one made no distinction between the races in his work in New Orleans(where he is still buried I think), as did Archbishop Francis X. Hummel who more than a year before Brown v. Board of Education publicly vowed that "there will be no segregation in the kingdom of heaven-or in the Archdiocese of New Orleans" integrated the sodalities along with the other diocesan organisations, recommending distinguished African American ( or coloured people as they were known) men and women for Papal honours. Still, much was lost! Terry Written by Terry Washington |
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