The Community and the community: The Newark Benedictines and the Changing Relationship to African Americans

By 1870 the Benedictine community of Newark, New Jersey staffed St. Mary's parish, its associated grammar school, and St. Benedict's College (later St. Benedict's Preparatory School). In the beginning, all three institutions had a preponderance of Germans. Over time as other immigrant groups came to the city, the ethnic composition of all three changed. A major difference between the parish elementary school and St. Benedict's Prep came with the influx of African Americans beginning in the 1930s. While St. Mary's parish and school became home to a variety of ethnic groups, including African Americans, and the school had no white students by 1969, St. Benedict's Prep did not accept black students in significant numbers until the early 1970s. A comparison of St. Mary's and St. Benedict's, and of the monks involved in ministry at these two nearby locations, shows a profound difference in engaging the African American community. The 1972 closure of St. Benedict's Prep, the exodus of several monks, and the reopening of the school a year later marked a shift in racial attitudes.