"At the Altar of Their God": African American Catholics in Cleveland, 1922-1961 by Dorothy Ann Blatnica, V.S.C. (review)

324 BOOK REVIEWS The author has drawn on an impressive array of relevant archives—not only those of the PCA, but also of the relevant dioceses, the NCCB, motion picture studios, and individuals including Will Hays, Daniel A. Lord,Wilfrid Parsons, and Martin Quigley. He offers detailed and engaging descriptions of the controversies over specific pictures, and carefully traces the alliances among various groups both within and outside the motion picture industry. Black's analysis would have been richer if he had supplemented his excellent primary research with a more precise understanding of the cultural and intellectual context of the "morality codes" and the "Catholics" of his subtitle. Catholic involvement in motion picture censorship was motivated by an approach to art and morality grounded in a complex, self-conscious theology, not simply by a conservative desire to safeguard the status quo, still less by an unreflective "Victorianism." Black's analysis would have been more accurate and fairer to the world view of those involved had he achieved a fuller grasp of, for example, neo-scholasticism and natural law philosophy, the imperatives of Catholic Action, and the mechanics and rationale behind Catholic regulation of reading and publication. His assertion that Dos Passos, Dreiser, Faulkner, Hemingway , and Sinclair Lewis were on the Index of Forbidden Books is simply incorrect . For this assertion the author cites Jonathon Green, Encyclopœdia of Censorship (New York: Facts on File, 1990), but he has apparently mistaken a generic list offrequently banned books ("index of banned books,"pp. 136-140) for a continuation of the entry on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (pp. 133-136). Readers able to supply the wider context for themselves will find the story Black tells engrossing and the information he provides useful. Una M. Cadegan University ofDayton "At the Altar of Their God": African American Catholics in Cleveland, 1922-1961. By Dorothy Ann Blatnica, VS.C. Edited by Graham Hodges. [Studies in African American History and Culture.] (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc. 1995. Pp. xiv, 256. $54.00.) Almost thirty-five years after the terminus of the time span covered in this book,Sister Dorothy Ann Blatnica,V.S.C,has opened a heretofore closed curtain on those days. Her research into this sensitive and complex experience as it was lived in Cleveland, as well as in many other dioceses, is wonderfully correlated . The book is tightly written and for those of us who sought to minister in the AfricanAmerican parishes of Cleveland during those years, a poignant recall of so many experiences. The book is especially powerful when Sister Dorothy Ann uses primary archival resources, letters from pastors to bishops and the replies of those bishops , parish bulletins and announcements, and newspaper articles. There follows an extensive and well-directed use of oral history, interviews with many of BOOK REVIEWS 325 the people who grew up and lived as African American Catholics in Cleveland during these years, 1922 to 1961. One example: Father Melchior Lochtefeld, who ministered to the AfricanAmerican Catholic community at Our Lady ofthe Blessed Sacrament Parish and later at St. Edward Parish for more than twenty years, is remembered to this day with respect byAfrican American parishes as a man who knew his people very well, visited them in their homes, and was constantly present to them. He and the staff ofthe parishes organized all sorts of activities for the children ofthe parish. One such activity,which he seems to have taught himself, was square dancing. The square dancing was considered so good that the children were invited to other schools to teach square dancing. They even managed to be televised. In retrospect, one of this group recalls today, "As I look back, I don't like it. . . . We shouldn't have been down at the TV station square dancing. We looked like little minstrels. . . . But, I'm sure Father gave us the best he knew." The issue, of course, was cultural dissonance—as Sister Dorothy Ann clearly points out. She goes on to say, "No matter how well a priest may feel he is accepted by a congregation of African American Catholics, the people need priests of their own race. They need to know not just what is...