Black Catholic History Month
National Catholic Interracial Federation A 1924 Movement Led to Interracial Dialogue and the Black Catholic Congress BY SARAH ATER
Early 20th Century America saw a modern, concerted effort to promote the Black community’s rights, needs and dignity. However, movements were difficult to sustain. In Cincinnati during the 1880-1890s, Daniel Rudd published the shortlived, groundbreaking newspaper American Catholic Tribune to evangelize the Black community, and founded the Black Catholic Congress, which met annually for its first years of activity, then became inactive for several decades. In Maryland during 1924, Dr. Thomas W. Turner, son of former slaves and an accomplished educator, botanist and activist, founded and led as its first president the Federated Colored Catholics, a Black-only organization designed to unite the roughly 250,000 Black Catholics in America. The Federation’s constitution outlined its goals to advance the spiritual and temporal needs of Black Americans; education, housing, status in the Church, and work opportunities were critical. They decried the lack of Black priests and pressed for their admittance in seminaries. Local chapters formed to advocate the Federation’s causes with their local bishops and parishes. 1 8 | THE CATHOLIC TE LEGRAPH
They held annual meetings at different locations, and met twice in Cincinnati. The first, in 1928, was a one-day conference on “The Negro in Industry” and included Archbishop John McNicholas, O.P. and Dr. Turner as speakers. Professor Victor Daniel, principal of the Cardinal Gibbons Institute, a Catholic High School for Black students, spoke pointedly about the racism problem and Black workers being denied positions and proper training. These restrictions stressed an idea that Black men were inferior, an attitude difficult to reconcile with Christian teachings of the “Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man,” a phrase used regularly by Daniel Rudd. Dr. Turner commented on the need to form a Catholic Interracial Committee for making progress together and giving greater glory to God. His interracial committee idea grew beyond Dr. Turner’s vision, and it was soon proposed that the Federation itself become interracial. At its September 1932 meeting, the name changed to the “National Catholic Federation for Promotion of Better Race Relations,” then an
