Authentically Black and Truly Catholic: The Rise of Black Catholicism in the Great Migration by Matthew J. Cressler (review)

Five members of the Black Panther Party and fifty others identified as "Concerned Black Catholics and Whites Concerned about the Black Community" occupied the narthex of St. James Church, Chicago, for a first "Black Unity Mass" on January 5, 1969. Members of the Chicago Police Department's "Red Squad" tactical unit observed the protest, taking notes on what they dubbed a "prayin." During the same hour, "regular" church goers attended Mass in the nave of St. James, undoubtedly hearing the prayers and freedom songs ringing out from the demonstration.

Ironically, the protestors' General Intercessions, controversial in their time, have a contemporary ring. Their prayers for Black pride, unity, faith and in honor of a Black Baptist minister could appropriately be offered in 2018, for one of the many Catholic liturgies in celebration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday. Similarly, the fact of present-day Black Catholic celebrations in parishes and cathedrals, accompanied by piano, drums, electric bass, interpretive dance and diocesan-wide gospel choirs, was made possible, in part, by the confrontations, prayers, determination, and cultural evangelization of Black Catholic Chicagoans.

Historic and present-day liturgical comparisons and the detailed descriptions of ecclesial conflicts in Authentically Black and Truly Catholic, underscore author Matthew J. Cressler's thesis. He contends that undergirded by official changes in the Catholic Church's liturgical practice and engagement with the "modern world" after the Second Vatican Council, the intersection of Black Catholics in the United States and Black Power in the late 1960s and 1970s ignited a revolution in the expression of Black Catholic identity and in the community's worship style. In particular, Cressler attributes both local and national influence among Black Catholics, as well as in the wider United States Catholic Church, to the courage and "missionary" zeal for ecclesial self-determination and cultural relevance of Black Catholics in Chicago.

Cressler begins by documenting the exponential increase in the numbers of Chicago's Black Catholics from 1940 to 1975. Most were converted to what they came to believe to be the "One True Church," universal and above the racial color line. White religious, women and men of orders such as the Society of the Divine Word and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People, self-described "missionaries," dedicated themselves strategically and systematically to the conversion of newly arrived African-Americans of the "Great Migration." Cressler illuminates his research with converts' personal testimony gathered from journal entries, interviews (many conducted by himself), letters, and other archival materials.

Cressler offers a complexity of reasons for the African-American conversions. He contends that not only the prospect of greater educational opportunities, but also the experience of "quiet" and "dignified" liturgies, the inspiration and maintenance of family relationships, and the chance to "be somebody" all impacted conversion decisions. Cressler highlights the so-called "Chicago Plan" of mandatory family religious education and Mass attendance for all who sent their children to Catholic schools, as a foundation for many conversion choices.

The author's analysis contains little comparison between the Chicago Black Catholic mid-twentieth century conversion experience with that of African-American Chicagoans who chose other "high church" Christian denominations, also featuring "quiet" or "dignified" liturgies. He makes strong connections, however, between the converts' embrace of new devotional traditions, their chosen separation from former associations, and alternative participation in contemporaneous "religio-racial movements," including the Nation of Islam, the Moorish Science Temple of America, and the Commandment Keepers Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation of the Living God.

Cressler provides a riveting telling of the struggles for Black Catholic self-determination between priest-activists such as George Clements and Rollins Lambert, along with Concerned Black Catholics, the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party, the Afro-American Patrolman's League and Chicago's Archbishop Cardinal John P. Cody. He also includes accounts of intra-group leadership and...