Catholic Social Teaching, Vatican II, and Civil Rights: A Social Justice Trinity in the Fight to Save a Central Louisiana Black Catholic School

Abstract

On March 23, 1971, the pastor of St. James Memorial Catholic Church in Alexandria, Louisiana conceded in a letter to Alexandria’s bishop, Charles P. Greco, that his congregation’s segregated black school would permanently close at the end of the school year. The planned closure brought heartache for all immediate stakeholders—clergy, religious sisters, and especially the lay faithful of the church. Less than one month later the congregation’s parish council presented Greco with a plan they argued could save the school from closure. The council’s attempt to thwart the closure provides an interesting local history case study that illuminates how black Catholics in the South during the period following the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) utilized the language and emphases of Vatican II, Black Power and civil rights, and the Church’s commitment to education and social justice in an effort to maintain the availability of Catholic education in their community.