Hierarchy and Democracy: The Friendship House Movement in the United States, 1938–1948

Abstract

Friendship House’s first decade in the United States (1938–1948) saw intense energy and creativity in building a movement for racial justice. Black and White Catholics joined founder Catherine de Hueck in clarifying Friendship House’s meaning and significance as a movement of the laity who were both Catholic and American. This article focuses on the internal dialogue around their shared governance, as Friendship House directors, staff, and volunteers explored the tensions between unity and uniformity, hierarchy and democracy, and obedience and autonomy. Movement leaders innovatively sought to graft a women-led movement onto the Catholic Church’s hierarchy while at the same time attempting to lead the movement in acknowledging multiple views and voices among its members. The tension between hierarchy and democracy, uniformity and unity in spirit, as they variously posed the question internally, was resolved with a representative form of governance that strove to balance local autonomy with accountability to both the movement as a whole and the broader Catholic Church.