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A CONSERVATIVE VOICE FOR BLACK CATHOLICS: THE CASE OF JAMES MARTIN GILLIS, C.S.P. BY Richard Gribble, C.S.C* In the United States religious and political conservatives traditionally have not supported the rights of minorities. During the nineteenth century nativism, expressed in political, social, and religious contexts, flourished and was championed most actively by those of a conservative and isolationist mindset who rebelled against any possible contamination of the American ideals of democracy and social assimilation. Minorities were welcome when they filled a vacancy in a sweat shop, could drive spikes into railroad ties, or occupied a parcel of land to advance the western drive of"manifest destiny." However, when these groups gained strength in numbers, formed separatist communities, or in any way threatened the beliefs or livelihood of native citizens, they were opposed and declared "unwanted" on all fronts. The Know-Nothing party between 1850 and 1854 gained a great following in its campaign against immigrants, especially the rapidly growing Catholic community .1 Chinese laborers, who helped construct the transcontinental railroad , were, after the California depression of 1873, considered a threat to local workers and banned from immigrating after 1882. Similar obstacles were experienced by other minority peoples culminating in the establishment of a quota system through the immigration restriction acts of 1921 and 1924. Historically the isolation and injustice perpetrated against black Americans has been the harshest experienced by any minority group.2 The 1863 Emancipation Proclamation led to the adoption of the thir- •Father Gribble is superior of Moreau Seminary in Notre Dame, Indiana. The complete history of the Know-Nothings is presented in:Tyler Anbinder,Nativism & Slavery: The Northern Know-Nothings & the Politics ofthe 1850s (New York, 1992). 2The historical record and American literature are replete with documentation of discrimination and racial injustice against black Americans. Representative historical references are: Robert Blauner, Racial Oppression in America (New York, 1972); Stephen B. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound: The Life of Martin Luther King, fr. (New York, 1982); C.Vann Woodwzrd,American Counterpoint: Slavery and Racism in the North-South Dialogue (New York, 1971); and Harvard Sitkoff,^ New Dealfor Blacks: The Emergence of Civil Rights as a National Issue (New York, 1978). In literature the books of Richard 420 BY RICHARD GRIBBLE, C.S.C.421 teenth amendment to the Constitution, -which eliminated slavery but did little to improve social conditions and nothing to change attitudes toward blacks. Social neglect of blacks in the nineteenth century was institutionalized by nativists during the Progressive Era into a rigid system of segregation (Jim Crow) which was enforced throughout the South, continuing to the onset of the Civil Rights Movement in 1955. James Martin GiUis, a Paulist priest and Irish-American, championed a staunchly conservative religious and political agenda during a colorful career as a mission preacher, magazine editor, and essayist. Gillis was highly critical of moral laxism, repudiated war while promoting isolationism , and rejected the growth of government control over people as a direct violation of Abraham Lincoln's famous dictum—government of, by, and for the people. The consummate conservative as described by Clinton Rossiter in 1955,3 GiUis was, nonetheless, as described in this essay, a social progressive in his advocacy of the rights of all minorities, most especiaUy black Catholics, through essays, radio talks, and, most prominently, his leadership in the Northeastern Clergy Conference for Negro Welfare.4 James Martin Gillis—Conservative Catholic Born in 1876 to first-generation Americans of Irish heritage and reared in the "Yankee" tradition of Boston,James Gillis developed a rigorist mentality which demanded much of himself and the world. Wright are classics: See Native Son (New York, 1940) and Black Boy:A Record ofChildhood and Youth (New York, 1945). 'Clinton Rossiter, Conservatism in America (New York, 1955), pp. 21-26, 31, 49, 55, 179, 187-189. Rossiter lists the characteristics of the conservative world view: conviction of the freedom and dignity of the individual, opposition to expanding and centralized government, duty-consciousness, and the belief that humans are a composite of good and evil. Conservatives believed that government must be constitutional, diffused but balanced , representative, and limited. Gillis matches Rossiter's list almost exactly. Rossiter's conservative outline has been...

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