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C H A P T E R V I I The Rise of Southern Catholic Resistance, 1955–1956 RCHBISHOP JOSEPH FRANCIS RUMMEL’S CALL in 1953 to end segregation practices within the archdiocese of New Orleans coupled with the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education et al. decision in 1954 altered religious practices in the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana. Nonetheless , in 1955 Catholics in the archdiocese of New Orleans, who were not ready to embrace this new social order within or without the church, began a series of public challenges to thwart desegregation efforts. The faithful of the archdiocese questioned the implementation of racial integration on the grounds that segregation was a social rather than moral issue. They opposed desegregation, charging that it was Communist inspired. They petitioned for a delay in effecting any changes and, failing that, organized an opposition body to challenge church leaders and policy. In one instance the Catholic laity resorted to physical threat to keep a black cleric from presiding at church services. Only ecclesiastical intervention at the highest levels eventually broke the opposition in 1956 and again in 1962. Catholic dissent against church teachings regarding segregation, nevertheless , set the tone for later challenges to church authority on a variety of issues, from birth control, the Vietnam War, and abortion to the ordination of women. The rise of southern Catholic resistance coincided with the development of other Southern antisegregation organizations, especially the White Citizens’ Council (WCC). Founded in July 1954 in Indianola, Mississippi, the WCC established its first chapter in Louisiana in the spring of 1955. Other prosegregation organizations established in Louisiana at this time were the Southern Gentlemen, Inc., the Knights of White Christians, and the Society for the Preservation of State Government and Racial Integrity. In the fall of 1955, New Orleans became the site of the second WCC chapter established in the state. Within a year the Crescent City would be home to half of Louisiana’s WCC members—mostly Catholic New Orleanians. WCC efforts to thwart desegrega142 A Anderson final pages 8/10/05 9:15 AM Page 142 tion by legal and extralegal means, including intimidation, would lead directly to the demise of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).1 The Supreme Court’s Brown decision of 1954 and the Court’s rendering of Brown II the following year spurred interest in the WCC. While the original decision outlawed racial segregation in the public school system, the companion decision instructed school boards to begin the process of desegregation “with all deliberate speed.” For many southerners, the Court’s directive meant “take one’s time” in effecting change, if at all.2 RUMMEL AND DESEGREGATION Before the Citizens’ Councils and other prosegregation organizations could attack and silence pro-integration associations, Southeastern Regional Interracial Commission (SERINCO) and CHR members continued their efforts to promote interracial harmony. Archbishop Joseph Francis Rummel, for his part, established a committee to examine the Supreme Court’s desegregation decisions as they applied to church policy. With twelve representative members of the clergy and laity chaired by Auxiliary Bishop L. Abel Caillouet, the committee began its deliberations in early 1955. The archbishop instructed this ecclesiastical committee to take into consideration not only the spiritual and moral obligations of the desegregation issue but also temporal questions: difficulties arising from the long-term practice of segregation, crowded conditions in the black and white Catholic schools, the cost of establishing and maintaining integrated schools, and “the general effect which premature de-segregation may have upon the present favorable attitude of our people towards Catholic education.”3 After holding several meetings and soliciting the opinions and attitudes of pastors, principals, and other interested Catholics, the committee, in August 1955, reported back to Rummel recommending: [A]t the earliest practical moment, a notice should be sent by [Rummel] . . . to all pastors and principals of schools that integration will be introduced as of the opening of the 1956 school session: such integration to commence only with the first grade (or kindergarten). As early as possible prior to the opening date an educational campaign as to the moral obligation, propriety, helpfulness and patriotic ideal of true Americanism with regard to integration [should] be developed throughout the Archdiocese.4 The committee report also clarified the relation of archdiocesan policy regarding desegregation to Louisiana state law. Because parochial schools did not receive The Rise of Southern Catholic Resistance, 1955–1956  143 Anderson final pages 8/10/05 9:15 AM...

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