African-American Catholic Serial Literature Prior to 1960

Abstract

This study identifies the titles and discusses the sources of periodical literature regarding African-American Catholics prior to two roughly coinciding and momentous events-the Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church, 1962-1965, and the start of this century's American civil rights movement. Beginning in the 1880s, serials about and for black Catholics were published by both religious and secular individuals and institutions. Most of the titles were short-lived and inadequately preserved, providing an uneven but important record of African-American Catholics-a religious minority within a racial minority.