"A heritage of which it can be proud": Holy Name of Mary Parish, African American Catholics, and Education in the Black Freedom Struggle

Abstract

African American Catholics undoubtedly recognized their unique status as minorities of an already marginalized racial group. Despite their exceptional experiences, they were never far removed from well-established traditions of African American educational advocacy. Though this advocacy took many forms, institution building was a constituent element and accounted for black schools' dramatic growth from Reconstruction to the early twentieth century. As with the development of non-Catholic schools, African American women played a central role in founding Catholic schools. In 1941, their organizing efforts led to the establishment of Holy Name of Mary, Chicago's second Catholic parish created for African Americans and its first parochial school for black students and educators. The Oblate Sisters of Providence, an order of black sisters, inherited this work and served as the school's primary educational staff. Despite black women's centrality to Holy Name of Mary's development, their leadership came into conflict with the Archdiocese of Chicago's white patriarchal authority. Black women's resistance to this authority drew on larger histories of African American activism and foreshadowed the struggles for self-determination so prevalent in later eras. Their advocacy offered important critiques of Catholic racial liberalism, demonstrating a more comprehensive path for the Church's social justice efforts.