Community 1958-05: Vol 17 Iss 9

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{th Anniversary of the May 17, 1994
Supreme Court Decision

What has happened as a result? See story on page 4 and 5

Ten Cents May, 1958

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“
Blessed Martin de Porres, O.P.
by an unknown artist
May Blessed Martin, patron of interracial justice,
teach all men to live together in peace and harmony.
EDITORIAL

HIS MONTH—which marks the

‘ : Fourth Anniversary of the Supreme

ie Court’s ruling that segregation in pub-

lic schools is unconstitutional —is a

fees time for reflecting on what these four
‘ years have wrought.

We asked friends of COMMUNITY
in southern states to describe the pic-
ture as they see it in their immediate
area. (Their comments are on pages
4-5.) The over-all picture drawn by
these correspondents is an uneven one.

In “border” areas some heartening

MAY, 1958 * Vol. 17, No. 9

P COMMUNITY
as : (Formerly “The Catholic Interracialist’’)

is by Friendship House,

an organization of lic laymen and
dedicated to working for love of God on the
elimination of racial prahadion and Gacrinination.

aE
Be Editor: Mary Dolan
Be Circulation Manager: Delores Price
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is published monthly except August.
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to

Reflections on May 17th

beginnings on de-segregation have
been accomplished—indeed, more than
beginnings. in the Deep £outh the pic-
ture is, as would be expected, much
less encouraging.

Nonetheless, there have been inroads;
fewer states now have complete school
segregation. Furthermore this is not
the first civil rights Gecicion on which
compliance has lagged. It took 15 years,
James M. Nabrit of Howard Univer-
sity Law {£chool has pointed out, to
get compliance with the decision

highlights

Four Years Later

against white primaries, and nine years
with the decision against segregation
in interstate travel. Viewed in this
background, the rate of compliance
with the school decision is, Mr. Nabrit
says, satisfactory.

There can be, of course, no compla-
cency nor halting as long as there con-
tinue to be states where rights are be-
ing unjustly denied. We pause for
these reflections on what has been ac-
complished only in order to return with
renewed courage and hope to the task
of completing the work.

We’re Pleased

a PARDON US while we point
with pride to the news that an ar-

ticle from COMMUNITY has been in-

cluded in the new book Realities.

A special bow of thanks to writer
Helen Caldwell Riley, who generously
contributed the article. Mrs. Riley is
best known for her books Color Ebony
and Not Without Tears. (A review of
Realities appears on page 7.)

A South That’s not so Solid(\\. bet

HE “UNEVENESS” of the South-

ern picture—which our report on
school de-segregation shows—is worth
emphasizing.

The “Solid South” is now a misnom-
er, and perhaps always was. Failure of
observers (especially Northern observ-
ers) to recognize and take account of
this variety is a source of frustration
to Southerners who are working for
ending segregation.

Recognizing this variety and then re-
porting accurately on it is, of course,
no easy task. As John Cogley said re-
cently in The Commonweal:

“T don‘t think I ever wrote a column
which did not stand in need of foot-
notes. I don’t believe many other col-
umnists have, either. Something is al-

ways being left unsaid. It is hard, even
when one is dealing with a simple
matter, to tell the whole truth. The
whole truth does not lend itself to the
kind of over-simplification which seems
to be unavoidable in journalism.”

Difficult as this giving the whole
truth is, we may never fully succeed.
But we can always try a little harder
to do it.

It ill becomes those of us working
for interracial justice who are North-
erners to fail to make distinctions
about the South. We are quick to point
out the failure of prejudiced people to
make distinctions about a racial group.
Too often we tend to do the same about

the South and Southerners.
—M.D.

The Some and the All of It 4,”

A recent talk by John A. Morsell, assist-
ant to Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of
the National Association for the Advance-
ment of Colored People, challenges the oft-
heard “justification” for segregation: Ne-
Sroes are inferior—either, so the argument
goes, inherently inferior, or a (modified form
of the same argument) inferior because of
Past injustices. Mr. Morsell points out:

aul HATEVER MAY BE wrong with
some Negroes, it is senseless to
base our treatment of the others on it.

“As a matter of fact, the percentage
of Negroes involved in crime is very
small, just as is true of the population
at large. The number of Negroes whose
intelligence test scores fall at the aver-
age or higher is very large, despite the
handicaps.

“Among Negroes, disease and crime
are largely confined to the low-income
dwellers in the urban slums—precisely
as is the case with the white popula-
tion. It is to be assumed that, as equal-

...in this issue

tion and discovery, August 22-28 .

ity of opportunity becomes real for
larger and larger segments of the Ne-
gro community, their proportionate
contribution to our crime rates will
progressively diminish.

“The rightness of the principle of
equal treatment and the necessity of
applying it would remain unaffected if
there were only a single Negro child
who met the standards of capacity,
cleanliness, and behavior which segre-
gation logic would impose for admis-
sion to the public school. But there are
many, many more than that, in the
smallest rural hamlet in the deepest
South. The problem—and I would not
pretend that it does not exist in some
measure—is administrative and peda-
gogical, not one of principle.”

* ~ ck

We are fond of challenging the separate-

but-equal theory by raising this question:

if schools (and other facilities) must be
SEPARATE, why should they be EQUAL?

. + open to

This month is the Fourth Anniversary of the
Supreme Court’s school de-segregation deci-
sion. Seven Southern observers report in this
issue how the de-segregation picture looks in
their area today—Four Years Later.

A COMMUNITY Survey .. . pages 4, 5

The Quest for Jobs

“Negro groups in Washington, D.C., believe
that we have just begun to solve the prob-
lems of discrimination, particularly problems
in employment.”

by Julius W. Hobson .. . page 3

A Week to Remember and Grow on

At Friendship House in Chicago plans are
being made for a Week’s Session of explora-

PICTURE CREDITS: 1, top—The Reporter magazine, bottom—Minneapolis Tribune; 2, St. Joseph Magazine; 3, top left—

people throughout the country who are in-
terested in interracial work. COMMUNITY
readers are especialy invited.

by Betty Plank ... page 8

° SPECIAL °

“WHY IS HOUSING SEGREGATION UN-
JUST ” by Dennis Clark—the page one
article from March 1958 COMMUNITY.

is now available in pamphlet form. Prices:

1-9 copies, 10 cents each; 10-99 copies, 8
cents; 100-999 copies, 7 cents; 1,000 or more,
5 cents. Send orders to Friendship House,
4233 South Indiana Avenue, Chicago 15,
Illinois. Friendship House pays postage if
payment accompanies order.

New York State

Committee Against Discrimination, top center—Chicago Public Schools; 4, bottom—Somerville in The Atlanta Journal; 5, top—Herblock

in The Washington Post, right—National Conference of Christians

and Jews;

7, bottom, St. Joseph Magazine.

COMMUNITY

O THE SUPERFICIAL OBSERVER

Washington, D.C., appears to be a
city of racial peace and harmony. The
population is 45 per cent non-white,
and for all practical purposes segrega-
tion in public places has been broken
down. Theatres, hotels, restaurants,
places of amusement, and schools have
been desegregated. The remnants of
segregation are found only in the pri-
vate clubs, some churches, and some
private schools.

U.S. News and World Report of
November 1, 1957 gave this impression.
It stated, in connection with a D.C. Po-
lice Department—NAACP (National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People) controversy, “In Wash-
ington, D.C., the Nation’s Capitol, it
was being taken for granted until re-
cently that the problem of race rela-
tions had been solved.”

This is indeed not the impression ex-
pressed or believed by any Negro or-
ganization or publication— quite the
contrary. Negro groups believe that we
have just begun to solve the problems,
particularly problems of discrimination
in employment. Against this back-
ground, let us consider what the Wash-
ington Negro faces in his quest for a
job.

In Public Employment

The Federal and District Govern-
ments occupy key positions in the
economy of Washington, D.C. In Janu-
ary approximately 225,000 of the Dis-
trict’s 636,900 workers were on Fed-
eral Government payrolls. And 23,500
were on the District Government pay-
rolls. The Federal and District Gov-
ernments combined represent the high-
est concentration of employment with-
in a single industry to be found among
the nation’s largest centers.

It is significant that more than 95
per cent of the Negroes employed in
the Federal Government “white col-
lar” positions are in the lowest four
grades of the classification schedule.
Supervisory and professional jobs are
seldom open to Negro applicants.

The story of discrimination in pub-
lic employment in Washington by its
very proportions is a painful one in
that public agencies are of, for, and by
the people. The Negro, being part of
the people, is therefore a “stockhold-
er,”’ a part owner.

This discrimination against the Negro
in public employment is the same as
if the stockholders of the General Mo-
tors Corporation were denied the right
to jobs or to participate in the affairs
of the Corporation because they had
red hair or blue eyes.

How is this done? The school attend-
ed and former places of residence often
give clues as to race before an inter-
view. After a Negro is hired there are

MAY, 1958

THE QUEST FOR JOBS

Median family income per capita — $2050 for whites, $1000
for Negroes — reflects unequal job opportunities in D.C.

all sorts of methods of noting race,
without writing “Negro,” on a person-
nel folder (such as turning down a
corner of the folder).

The D.C. Police Department is not
supposed to keep records by race, but
when this department was requested
by the NAACP to furnish personnel
data by race for the current period
and for several years back, such in-
formation was supplied in a short peri-
od of time.

In Private Employment

In private enterprise, where nearly
400,000 D.C. citizens must seek a live-
lihood, discrimination is far more pro-
nounced. The large department stores,
the chain food stores, the public util-
ities, and hundreds of smaller busi-

E. FRANKLIN JACKSON,
leader of campaign to get five
large department stores in
Washington to hire Negroes.
The campaign is directed by
the Equal Employment Op-
portunity committee, which
Mr. Jackson formed.

nesses do not hire colored District citi-
zens in any except the lowest paying
jobs, such as janitors, maids, truck
drivers, messengers, etc.

It is difficult for Negroes to obtain
membership in the labor unions and
particularly in the craft unions. Thus
Negro carpenters, plumbers, electri-
cians, printers, painters, bricklayers,

In the Nation’s capitol, Negroes find that
job opportunities like these (above and left)
are severely limited. Julius Hobson describes
the employment picture and efforts to change it.

tpt

and plasterers are completely shut out
by the construction industry; the ex-
cuse of the industry being that they
are not members of the craft unions.

The large banks and finance com-
panies, which finance a great portion
of Negro home ownership, home im-
provements, and automobile purchases,
are completely closed to him as far as
clerical and managerial positions are
concerned. This writer cannot cite a
single case of a Negro employed as a
secretary, clerk, or teller in these in-
stitutions.

The whole gamut of jobs in indus-
tries which require little training is
closed to colored job seekers: occupa-
tions such as bread and laundry truck
drivers, ticket sellers in bus and rail-
road stations, desk clerks in hotels.

Efforts on Public Jobs

What efforts have been made to com-
bat discrimination in public employ-
ment?

In January, 1955 President Eisen-
hower issued an Executive Order es-
tablishing the President’s Committee on
Government Policy. This Committee is
responsible for assisting government
agencies to implement the policy of
equal opportunity for all Federal em-
ployees or job applicants regardless of
race, creed or national origin.

In 1953 the District government had
issued a similar order. This order also
prohibited the letting of contracts to
private concerns which practice dis-
crimination.

Federal and District Government Ne-
gro employees have little utilized the
machinery set up by these orders.
Often they are not aware of this ma-
chinery; and if they are aware, they
may have little confidence in it since
it is without enforcement powers. And
colored employees are intimidated by
a very real fear of loss of jobs.

Therefore, despite the impressive
stated purposes of the Federal and Dis-
trict orders, some individual agency
heads and personnel officers have been
able to ignore or get around them.

Exposure Most Effective

The most effective method open to
the Negro in combating discrimination
in public employment is the device of
exposure. This device was used effec-
tively by the D.C. branch of the
NAACP in its November, 1957 contro-
versy with the D.C. Police Department.

The NAACP acted on the theory that

Julius W. Hobson

any public bureau, agency, or division
which practices discrimination over a
long period of time builds up a case
against itself.

When the NAACP examined Police
personnel records for a five-year peri-
od, a pattern was revealed in which
Negroes were held to 10 per cent of
the force. These records also indicated
that all Negro policemen were kept in
grade year after year and that as a
whole Negroes were given the menial
tasks in the police department. Most
important of all, the per capita educa-
tion of the Negro policemen was found
to be considerably higher than that of
the white policemen.

If indeed the NAACP’s theory is cor-
rect, it could be applied to any public
agency. Surveys of personnel records
would undoubtedly reveal and expose
those individual directors, supervisors,
and personnel officers who violate Fed-
eral and District regulations.

These individuals cannot stand ex-
posure. If they are ever brought be-
fore a fair court, whether it be a court
of law or a court of public opinion,
their subjective appraisals of Negro
job seekers or employees will not stand.

Work on Private Employment

And what about efforts to combat
discrimination in private employment?

Many private companies hold gov-
ernment contracts. As noted above, the
District government in 1953 prohibited
letting contracts to private concerns
who practice discrimination. Also the
Federal government, in an Executive
Order of 1953, required non-discrimi-
nation “in work paid for by American
taxpayers.” However, these orders are
very limited in their effectiveness.

Usually individuals seeking employ-
ment on jobs do not know whether
the firm is under contract with the dis-
trict or federal government. And if the
job seeker does know that there is a
contract, he is usually unaware of the
machinery through which he might
complain.

In private employment, as in public
employment, the most effective meth-
ods of fighting discrimination are those
put forward by the Negro community
—through its NAACP, its Urban

(Continued on page 7)

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ARKANSAS: “Opposition
has hardened.” st

Little Rock, Arkansas, has been the focus
of public attention on school de-segrega-
tion. RT. REV. MICHAEL LENSING,
O.S.B., abbot of New Subiaco Abbey in
Arkansas, describes the climate in the state
towards desegregation, as he sees it.

UR YEARS AGO, following the
Supreme Court decision decreeing
the end of segregation in American
schools, Governor Orval Faubus of Ar-
kansas was pressurized by sprouting
Citizens Councils for an official state-
ment of policy. Throughout the South,
governors and other politicians were
shouting undying opposition and in-
flammatory condemnation. But Gov-
ernor Faubus refused to take an open
stand. The court decision, he affirmed,
was a problem of the school districts,
not the governor’s office.

Today, Faubus, is the segregationists’
hero. In September, 1957, in a complete
“about face,” he called out units of the
Arkansas National Guard and ordered
them forcibly to prevent the imple-
mentation of the court-approved inte-
gration plan of the Little Rock School
District. When President Eisenhower
issued the order for the enforcement
of the integration plan, and sent in
federal troops to end defiance of the
court decree, Faubus assumed the role
of the “preserver of peace,” “champion
of States’ Rights,” the persecuted
“guardian of freedom.”

Seeks Third Term

At Central High School in Little
Rock, federalized National Guardsmen
are on duty, protecting the right of
eight Negro students to obtain an edu-
cation in the public school of their
choice. The School Board and super-
intendent of schools in Little Rock are
harrassed and intimidated by continu-
ing threats of violence and law suits.
Faubus has announced for an almost
unprecedented third term and is re-
garded by political analysts as a shoo-
in candidate. At this writing only one
opponent has definitely announced for
the office, and in the matter of Little
Rock Central High and segregation he
is an outspoken “me-too” candidate.

A few days ago, the School Board of
the Pine Bluff District in Arkansas’
third largest city announced that it was
postponing, for at least another year,
its integration plan which had been
previously scheduled to begin in the
fall of 1958. The Board attributed the
delay to the developments at Central
High in Little Rock.

Today Desegregation Remote

The practically unanimous consensus
of opinion in Arkansas is that desegre-
gation is farther away today in the
State than it seemed to be four years
ago when the Supreme Court decision
was announced. “Integrationist” is re-
garded as a vile epiphet and as a po-
litical kiss of death to be implanted on
any candidate who refuses to mount
the Faubus bandwagon.

The stalemate at Central High is re-
garded as segregationist victory. Vio-
lence and defiance of law and order
have seemingly proven effective in
holding off the threatened tyranny of
the Supreme Court decree. Indecision
is gone; opposition to desegregation
has hardened. Champions of interracial
justice have been brow-beaten into
silence or into apologetic retreat.

Are there any bright spots in the
picture? In my observation, they are
not apparent on the surface. A number
of public schools which integrated
small minority groups of colored stu-
dents in recent years have continued
unchanged. Catholic Negroes are ac-
cepted in parochial and private Cath-
olic schools where no separate facilities
were provided in keeping with the cus-
toms of the past. Catholics constitute a
very small minority, less than three per
gent of the state’s population. Public
statements by Church authorities are
generally being avoided. -.

a

Four years later...

On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregation
in public schools unconstitutional. What are the
results — COMMUNITY last month asked people in states
affected — of that decisions? Here are their replies.

Is this too dark a picture? Perhaps.
But it is no more than a surface pic-
ture. Christian hope assures us that the
hour of the powers of darkness is a
passing one. An Easter dawn cannot be
far off.

VIRGINIA: “Another bat-
tle of north and south!”

Northern Virginia’s willingness to inte-
rate is opposed by state officials, accord-
ing to MABEL C. KNIGHT, former COM-
MUNITY editor, now teaching in Fairfax.

SEEMED STRANGE to me last fall

when a well-dressed, pleasant wom-
an handed me an election leaflet ad-
vocating “Massive Resistance” at a
Safeway supermarket in Fairfax, Vir-
ginia. Resistance would be against the
order of federal courts that Arlington
must admit seven Negroes to the
schools nearest their homes, which
schools happen to be white.

The case is now before the United
States Supreme Court.

Resistance to integration by Gover-
nor Almond and the “Byrd Machine”
has taken some control of schools away
from Arlington, which was ready to
integrate peaceably with a “pupil
placement” plan.

During the campaign a high school
student asked, “How will I get an edu-
cation if schools are closed?” The pol-
itician answered, “Wouldn’t it be bet-
ter to have no schools than to have
what is going on in Washington?”

What Will Happen?

Arlington teachers and others in Vir-
ginia are now asking what will hap-
pen to them if desegregation takes
place and schools are closed. The
Arlington school board has announced
its intention to honor contracts through
any racial crisis. Governor Almond has
said the state will furnish money if
schools are closed.

However, if school are integrated no
funds can be provided under .a recent
law. One of five state payments for the
school year will be made on August
15. So the local school boards will have
some funds which could not be with-
drawn.

It has been suggested that if the state
cuts off payments to Arlington schools
then Arlington might withhold taxes
which are a sizeable part of Virginia’s
income. Another battle between the
north and the south right here in Vir-
ginia!

Delegate Webb of Fairfax County
has. questioned whether Governor
Almond’s: “massive resistance” policy

has been thought through. He says it
will produce massive disorders as thou-
sands of parents sue the Common-
wealth of Virginia to get public edu-
cation for their children. And at school-
bus time of day it seems that schools
are the main industry of northern
Virginia.

Catholic schools in Virginia inte-
grated without difficulty when the Su-
preme Court decided against segrega-
tion. Teaching staffs are also integrated.
I met a Negro teacher at the Catholic
Teachers Institute in Richmond in the
fall.

An integrated class from Saint Pat-
rick’s Academy in Richmond was tak-
en by Sister Barbara on its usual visit
to the Virginia General Assembly re-
cently. There are three Negro girls in
the class. The group seated itself in
the Senate gallery. A sergeant-at-arms
came over and told the girls they must
be segregated according to senate rules.
Sister Barbara and her class soon left,
but they had borne witness to Chris-
tian unity.

WEST VIRGINIA: “Start-
ed integration in 1954.”

Former newspaper reporter in Hunting-
ton, WILBERT QUICK tells how local
schools completed integration in 1956.

AST SUMMER I moved from West

Virginia to Michigan so I don’t
have any firsthand up-to-date infor-
mation, but I have corresponded reg-
ularly with a reporter on a Hunting-
ton, West. Virginia, daily, who is fa-
miliar with my interest in integration,
and he has mentioned no problems in
the last ten months.

Integration in Cabell County (Hunt-
ington), West Virginia, started in 1954
in the first, seventh (first grade of jun-
ior high school), and tenth grades; in
1955 first, second, seventh, eighth,
tenth, and eleventh grades were inte-
grated. At the start of the 1956-1957
school years the school board dropped
the one-year-at-a-time program, and
there were no restrictions on Negroes
entering previously all-white schools
in their district. They also started
charging a fee for any student not at-
tending school in his own district. (This
was primarily to discourage some white
families from transferring their chil-
dren from an integrated school. It also
was a matter of making sure that
schools could handle the transferred
students insofar as rooms and teachers
were concerned.)

In. 1954 I personally visited the

schools which had Negro students in
doing a roundup newspaper story on
the opening of school. These two ex-
amples best typify the feeling of stu-
dents and teachers:

1. The only teachers worried about
integration were those who had no
Negro students.

2. A principal of an elementary
school with several Negro students
said that the only problem they had
was with white pupils arguing about
who would get to walk with a colored
student (to the playground or other
marching formation).

MISSOURI: “Tensions
seem to have lifted.”

From a border state where de-segrega-
tion moves began promptly after the 1954
decision, come these observations of GER-
ALDINE CARRIGAN, associate editor of
The Catholic Missourian, newspaper of the
diocese of Jefferson City.

WOULD SAY that—from an editor’s

point of view—four years ago we
were saying things for the first time.
People were always getting shocked.
Now you can include (as we did in a
recent issue) an editorial, two news
stories, and a feature about race rela-

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“This Is an Explosive Situation.”

tions in a general readership paper,
and not even realize you’ve done it.

But I think this is a time to really
get to work. We should do a much bet-
ter job for our readers of illustrating
the principles involved by doing stories
that show how much the Christian com-
munity is missing when in big and lit-
tle ways it fails to acknowledge the
bond that does so closely unite its
members to others.

In schools, the tensions seem to have
lifted for the elementary years, any-
way. On the high school scene, there
are so many tensions from other causes
that it would be hard to tell what part
integration has played. But you see
people being friends—a couple of white
girls and a Negro girl going to a movie.

Negro School Integrates

Lincoln University in Jefferson City,
a Negro school, began integration in
1955, one year after the Supreme Court
ruling. It now counts some 385 white
students among its enrollment of 1,184.

A recent play at Lincoln, which I
attended, was set in Ireland. All parts
were played (complete with brogue
and mannerisms) very well. One cast
member was white, and the rest Negro.
The audience was mixed. The tech-
nical advisor was a Catholic priest, and
everyone appreciated the efforts the

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MAY, 1938 »

cast had made to understand Irish
Catholics. They even made a special
trip to a nearby town to talk ta a
priest who was born in Ireland. A good
experience all around.

I believe that good experiences in
race relations have multiplied in the
last four years to the extent that in
normal conversations—an office party,
for example—a “complaint” from one
person is very often countered by
someone else’s unsolicited testimony.

MISSISSIPPI: “No step
toward integration.”

Our reporter, who prefers to remain
anonymous, finds one beneficial resul:t huge
expenditures to bring Negro schools up to
par with white.

NE CAN STATE without hesitation

that the school de-segregation pic-
ture in Mississippi remains exactly the
same as it was before the momentous
decision of the United States Supreme
Court on May 17, 1954.

No school, private or public, has
made any step toward integration
since that time. There have been, how-
ever, some beneficial results of the
Court decision. The State of Mississippi
is spending millions of dollars to bring
Negro schools up to par with white
schools. Thus one sees in many com-
munities, Jackson, for example, new
well-equipped and well-designed Ne-
gro public school buildings.

As far as this writer knows, St. Au-
gustine’s Seminary, Bay Saint Louis,
Mississippi, conducted by Divine Word
Missionaries, remains the only com-
pletely integrated Catholic school (per-
haps also, the only integrated private
school) in the state. It has an inter-
racial faculty and student body. Priest-
professors number 14; high school stu-
dents, 40; theological students, 18; lay
Brothers, nine. The seminary became
completely integrated in 1950.

WASHINGTON, D.C.:

“Severe financial crisis.”

JOHN J. O’CONNOR, professor of his-
tory at Georgetown University, notes that
District schools (which were de-segregated
promptly) are much too crowded. Voteless
Washingtonians can only hope Congress will
appropriate adequate funds.

HE WASHINGTON public school

system is facing a severe crisis.
Since it is the only voteless community
in the nation, it must go to Congress
for funds. In the years from 1947 to
1958, the Board of Education requested
$i12 million for capital outlay but re-
ceived appropriations of only $57 mil-
lion.

School officials and spokesmen for
community organizations are now ask-
ing $53.3 million for school construc-
tion. If this request is granted, it will
be possible to reduce average elemen-
tary classroom enrollment to 30 pupils
instead of the present 33.4.

The lack of adequate Congressional
appropriations has meant a second-rate
school system. The loss of maximum
educational opportunity has _ contrib-
uted to deficiencies now reflected in a
retardation of achievement, in a high
failure rate at all school levels, in the
behavior of bitter, rejected, and rebel-
lious youth who leave school hating it
and who walk the streets in humilia-
tion which is often expressed in acts
against the peace of the city.

The school system is handicapped by
the pre-1954 evil results of segregated
education which resulted in inferior
education for Negro pupils. Since 1954,
there has been a large immigration of
pupils from Southern states with re-
sultant over-crowding and a further
decline in the quality of education.

The primary concern of Washington
citizens today is the improvement of
educational opportunities for all chil-
dren. But Congress has the last word.

KENTUCKY: “Wildly
anti-integrationists never
had chance in Louisville”

Work for equal opportunities began in
this Border city some years before 1954.
MRS. JAMES DONOHUE, who helped
start a Catholic interracial group in 1951,
describes the variety of steps that have
helped smooth the de-segregation path.

INCE SCHOOL INTEGRATION was

begun in September, 1956, Louis-
ville, Kentucky, has had its full share
of the limelight nation-wide.

The community reacted to this pub-
licity with a certain sense of surprise;
and then with a firm determination to
maintain the community honor, since
our small efforts had earned us such
egregious distinction. Consequently, the
wildly fanatic anti-integration groups
never had a chance here. Although
they held a few sparsely attended
meetings, they received little or no
public support, and have not been
heard from at all during the past few
months. In our schools, colored chil-
dren of all ages have been accepted
by their contemporaries without inci-
dent or impact.

Louisville has steadily advanced to-
ward just treatment for all during the
past ten years. The move
began in the library, which 3
has been integrated during
all ten of those years, and
freely offers its many serv-
ices to all. Then the nursing
schools operated by the Sis-
ters of Charity of Nazareth
opened their doors to col-

ccegementev3i4
Mey v RS

Negro and the next white.

Some parishes have offered a wel-
coming hand to Negro parishioners and
school children. The achievements of
these parishes, like those of the public
schools, and the public and Catholic
high schools, have been truly notable.

Other parishes have simply made
Negroes feel so unwelcome that the
parents have continued to put their
children on the Transit Company bus
every morning and send them maybe
a mile or two to St. Augustine’s, the
Negro school. No one has been refused
at any school; it is simply a matter of
parental reluctance to place young chil-
dren in a hostile atmosphere. The West
End of Louisville is the natural area
of growth for the Negro population
here; still, many West End parishes
have yet to extend the hand of wel-
come to their colored neighbors.

Offer Economic Opportunities

To return to the credit side, Louis-
ville has given its colored citizens un-
precedented opportunities for economic
development. Many local plants give
their Negro employees exactly the
same opportunity to become skilled
workmen that white workers have,
and pay them the same wages.

The Negro’s right to vote has never
been interfered with here, and for

%

ored students, and later still J wot SURE-

the gates of Nazareth Col- @/ guT I THINK IT ie
lege and the University of | AS — sa
Louisville were opened to 4 ‘
Negroes.

Along the way of these
advances, the segregated
Louisville Municipal Col-
lege was closed, and many
distinguished Negro teach-
ers lost their positions; with
the notable exception of Dr.
Charles Parrish, the other
professors of the Negro col-
lege were lost to the com-
munity, and went to segre-
gated institutions in the
deep south to find the pro-
fessional status they de-
served so richly.

Catholic Schools Lead .

The Catholic School Board here, un-
der the direction of Monsignor Felix
N. Pitt, has been a leading force to-
wards school integration. In the two
years following the Supreme Court de-
cision of May, 1954, the School Board
carefully prepared the people through
their parent-teacher associations for an
understanding of the rights of Negro
Catholic children to an equal, Catholic
education. The Xaverian brothers, who
operate two of the local Catholic high
schools for boys, have welcomed Ne-
gro students since September, 1956. For
several years prior to integration, the
athletic programs of the Catholic
schools, both at the grade and high
school level, had included Negro teams.
Negro Schools

On the debit side, we must reckon
the fact that Negro schools continue
to exist because of their location in
Negro neighborhoods. The finest new
public high school in Louisville, Cen-
tral High School, remains a Negro
school. So does a brand new elemen-
tary and junior high school built next
to the newest Negro housing develop-
ment.

The Catholic Negro parishes remain,
still supporting their own schools. One
of these is old and long established,
and dearly beloved by its congrega-
tion; but another is almost brand new,
and has had great difficulty in getting
support from its congregation.

School integration in the Catholic
parochial schools has largely been left
to local solution in the parishes of the

fringe areas, where one block may be

tv Gewr

many years Negroes have been em-
ployed in local civil service jobs and in
the federal civil service.

Many professional people have also
been allowed to advance in their cho-
sen fields without regard to color. A
Negro manages a department in the
suburban branch of a local department
store; another is personnel manager for
a chemical plant. The Catholic School
Board has placed a very competent
Negro lay teacher in an all-white paro-
chial school in Jefferson County, and
she has been accepted without com-
plaint. A Negro is a teacher of nursing
arts at the Nazareth School of Nursing;
and a Negro woman doctor teaches
pediatrics at the University of Louis-
ville Medical School. A Negro Baptist
is head of the Chemistry Department
at Bellarmine College, Louisville’s new
Catholic college for men. And there is
Doctor Parrish, mentioned above, who
has been teaching Sociology at the
University of Louisville ever since in-
tegration began there.

Now Marking Time

Just at present, the community is
marking time, digesting what has been
accomplished.

There is some pressure for jegislation
requiring integration in theatres, res-
taurants, and hotels; but many feel en-
forced integration in these privately-
run institutions would be a mistake.
No effort has been made towards inte-
gration of the teaching staffs of the
public schools; but plans for such inte-
gration are reportedly on the drawing
boards. Some professional groups, no-

(Continued on page 6)

5

FROM AN ARKANSAS

The author of our Lines from the South series was
recently a surgical patient. While in the hospital,

she came upon this story of Bobbie Jean. Mrs. Abernethy
describes Bobbie Jean’s last illness and death — and the

funeral, thronged with Negroes and whites.

St. Anthony’s Hospital
Morrilton, Arkansas
(50 miles from Little Rock)

OBBIE JEAN kept getting worse.

Sister Ignatia, O.S.B., arranged the
covers on the almost lifeless body of
the young woman in the hospital bed
and adjusted the pillow that framed
her brown face. “It is only a matter
of time,’ the doctor had said. “She
cannot possibly live with that heart
and kidney condition.”

Sister looked at her watch. It would
soon be time for her to go off duty.
Most of the night attendants were not
Catholic. They would not understand
one very important duty when death
approached.

Sister looked searchingly at Bobbie
Jean, remembering her eagerness to
learn about Jesus in her conscious mo-
ments. Bobbie Jean had never been
baptized. She had gone to church some
when she was a child but had not at-
tended since she had been married.
But she had been well disposed to-
wards the efforts of Sister Ignatia and
Father George Kuhn, the hospital
Chaplain, in learning the acts of Faith,
Hope, Love, Contrition, and Resigna-
tion to God’s will.

Flickering Spark

Bobbie Jean was scarcely alive. How
could that tiny spark of life last
through the night? Sister knew her
duty. Pouring water on Bobbie Jean’s
forehead in the sign of the Cross, she
said, “I baptize thee in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost.” With her conscience at
rest and a farewell look at Bobbie
Jean, Sister Ignatia went off duty on
November 12, 1957, eve of All Saints
of the Benedictine Order, not expect-
ing to see are patient alive again.

Somehow, during the night, the flick-
ering spark began to grow steady. By
morning Bobbie Jean had rallied. After
a few weeks she was able to go to her
home in Paris, Arkansas, six miles from
the Benedictine monastery, New Su-
biaco Abbey.

Happy About Baptism

Father Kuhn sent word to Father
Cletus Post, O.S.B., pastor of St. Jo-
seph’s Church in Paris, about what had
happened. When Father Cletus called
at Bobbie Jean’s home, members of her
family were very friendly. Before he
could arrange instructions for Bobbie
Jean, however, she had taken a turn
for the worse and was back in St. An-
thony’s Hospital.

There Sister Ignatia explained to
Bobbie Jean about her baptism. Bobbie

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e A brief survey of the 23 living
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e Illustrated with Eeohes and

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Bay Seint Louis, Miss.

Jean was happy. “What must I do,”
she asked, “to become a Catholic?’’

Bobbie Jean was very ill and kept
getting worse all the time, but Father
Kuhn gave her instructions in the es-
sentials of the Faith in three short
periods a day during the time when
she would be conscious.

I visited the hospital last January,
prior to my own expected surgery, and
found Sister Sabina, O.S.B., Superior
of the Hospital, all aglow with enthu-
siasm for the way Bobbie Jean was
receiving the knowledge of the Faith
and the way her husband and relatives,
all of them non-Catholic, were glad
for her to go on with it.

Wants Instructions Hurried

“But I do wish Father would hurry
faster,” said Sister. “I do want her to
have Holy Communion before she
dies.”

February 24 came up on the calen-
dar, my day to enter St. Anthony’s
Hospital. When I arrived that after-
noon I had to go straight to my room
to be readied for surgery early the fol-
lowing morning. There was no time to
be with Bobbie Jean then. The surgical
had to precede the Liturgical.

But there was nothing to prevent
Father Kuhn from coming to my room
that night and telling me of the prog-
ress Bobbie Jean was making in spite
of increasing weakness and longer pe-
riods of dozing off out of the range of
hearing.

“Sister keeps telling me I have to
hurry faster, and Bobbie Jean keeps
getting weaker and weaker. I can’t
hurry any faster than she can take it.
But I—I think we are going to make
it!”

Misses a Day

Most of February 25 was in the dark
for me. Right after Holy Communion
there was the inevitable needle that
puts a straight jacket on all the con-
sciousness.

When I came to, there seemed to be
as many wires, tubes, and contraptions
attached to me as to my son’s radio
which sprouts a Q Multiplier, a micro-
phone, and assorted wires and switches
for earphones in another room. But I
was holding on—and so was Bobbie
Jean, according to Father Kuhn.

February 26 was a day that Father
Kuhn had to make careful use of as
Bobbie Jean was failing fast. On Feb-
ruary 27 Bobbie Jean was no longer
satisfied with merely wanting to learn
about Jesus and His Church. “I want
to be WITH Jesus,” she said, Joyfully
she was formally received into the
Church and made preparations for the
great event in her left, being with Jesus
in Holy Communion the next day.

Receives Last Blessing

“It was beautiful,” said Father
Kuhn the following night on his rounds.
“She had a good period of conscious-
ness and was so happy to make her
first Holy Communion.” On Saturday
morning, March 1, she was too weak
to receive Communion, but she rallied
that night enough to say to Sister Igna-
tia with a smile, “Keep sweet, Sister.”

On Sunday morning Father thought
she might be approaching the end. She
had already asked for Extreme Unc-
tion when the time came. Father
anointed her and gave her the Last

ny
OSPITAL

Mrs. Abernethy

Blessing. Very soon after that Bobbie
Jean, leaving her devastated body be-
hind, quietly began her career in eter-
nity. Her body was taken to Cosmopol-
itan Funeral Home.

Soon her husband and mother came
back to the hospital to see Father
Kuhn. “Father,” they asked, “what do
we do now?”

Very painstakingly Father Kuhn told
them about the Requiem Mass; how
Father Cletus would meet the body,
and the order in which they would go
into the Church.

“I’m going too,” said Father Kuhn.
“Tll sit near you, and you can watch
me. If you want to, you can stand
whenever I stand, kneel whenever I
kneel, and sit down when I do. Or if
you’d rather, you can just sit the whole
time. Be at the Church ten minutes
ahead of time.”

Father Kuhn wrote a letter for them
to take to Father Cletus. The letter
gave the dates of Bobbie Jean’s bap-
tism, reception into the Church, First
Holy Communion, and Extreme Unc-
tion. “And from her attitude towards
the Church,” the letter went on, “there
is no doubt of her right to Christian
burial.”

Some Nervous About Funeral

Requiem High Mass was arranged
for Friday morning, March 7, at 11:00
A.M., the time when the largest num-
ber of people could assemble.

Some in Morrillton were a little
nervous over the possibilities of the
situation—large numbers of non-Cath-
olic Negroes in a Church whose mem-
bers were almost all “white.” They
were afraid “something might happen.”
But no Little Rock boogerbears were
going to keep that parish of devout
Catholics from giving decent burial to
one of their own members.

I could not go with Sister Sabina,
Sister Ignatia, and Father Kuhn when
they left the hospital for Paris. But I
could go to Our Lord in the hospital
Chapel. I could pray that the varie-
gated bouquet of God’s people assem-
bling in His Own Church would be
unmolested by outsiders who might
want to cause trouble.

* * *

Father Kuhn was beaming when he
came back from Paris. “It was just

wonderful. The Church was filled—lots
of white people as well as colored peo-
ple. Some of them came as early as ten
o’clock. It was a High Mass, and you
ought to have seen the crowd that
went to Communion—First Friday, you
know. There were even three colored
people at the Communion Rail. And do
you know, they had two colored and
four white pall bearers.”

“Was she buried in the Catholic
cemetery, Father?” I asked.

No. Her family wanted her buried
with them. But lots of white people
went on out to the cemetery, too.
Somebody said there was a _ sheriff
around but there wasn’t a bit of trou-
ble at all.” After all, a sheriff can pay
his respects to the dead, too.

+ + *

“Father gave a marvelous talk,” said
Sister Sabina. “Using a text about the
unsearchable ways of God, he went on
to explain why He might have taken
Bobbie Jean. He explained how Bobbie
Jean had been baptized, some of the
things she had learned in becoming a
Catholic, how she had been received
into the Church, made her first Holy
Communion, and now was entitled to
everything the Church could give her.
He invited all the non-Catholics to
come back to the Church again.

“The cemetery was muddy,” con-
tinued Sister Sabina, “but it was mar-
velous the way the people went on out
there just the same. Right after the
Catholics had finished sprinkling Holy
Water on the casket as they went by,
Bobby Jean’s mother became very up-
set and wanted the casket opened
again. She went over to Sister Ignatia,
and after a little she seemed to calm
down.”

* 7 *

“What did you say to Bobbie Jean’s
mother there at the last?” I asked Sis-
ter Ignatia.

“Well, she kept saying ‘I just can’t
give up Bobbie Jean, I just can’t.’ I
told her she would have to because
Our Lord had claimed her. I told her
she ought to be proud of having a
daughter that was a saint and that
Bobbie Jean was up there praying for
her now, and she ought to show Bob-
bie Jean how brave she could be be-
fore all those people. Then she said,
‘O yes, that’s right,’ and seemed to calm
right down.

“Then she went over to the casket
for a last look. In a very clear voice
she said: ‘Bobbie Jean, I loved you—
but God loved you more.’”

+ * a

Before the people had left the ceme-
tery Bobbie Jean’s mother made her
way over to one of the colored Cath-
olic women. “Mrs. Franklin,” she said,
“When this is all over I’m coming over
to your house for a long talk—about
your Church.”

—Dorothy Abernethy

Mrs. Abernethy, now through with her
hospital stay, is back home recuperating.

Four Years Later...

(Continued from page 5) ~
tably medicine, offer considerable re-
sistance to integration.

In housing, much work needs to be
done. The big public housing projects
are still segregated; and white families
still put out “for sale” signs as soon as
a Negro family moves in on their block.

Parish leadership could do much to
prevent this. Many fine parishes now
existing, with schools already built and
paid for, could continue to serve their
people for years to come if the parish-
ioners would learn to accept and wel-
come their Negro neighbors, and stay
in their beloved, well-kept, almost-
paid-for homes. This kind of program,
in advance of the exodus, might save
many a parish, bring many colored
converts into the Church, and end the
ghetto practice which leads inevitably

to some kind of school segregation.
Most Hopeful of All

Louisville has long been a forward
looking community, with intelligent
leadership making every effort to util-
ize all the human resources in the city
to the best advantage.

To me, the most hopeful sign of all
is to see a white woman and a Negro
woman, obviously friends and neigh-
bors, meet on the street or in a bus
and exchange a few friendly words
about how they are getting on with
the spring cleaning. When and if—as
please God it will!—the time comes
when Louisville’s Negro population
ceases to be concentrated in a few
blocks along Walnut and Chestnut
Streets, then there will truly be an end
to school segregation and human segre-
gation in this community.

COMMUNITY

BOOK REVIEWS

york!

Best from the Catholic Press

REALITIES edited by Dan Herr and
Clem Lane, 296 pages. (Bruce Publish-
ing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
$3.95.)

HIS ABSORBING BOOK moves the

reader to shout a loud “hurrah” for
the Catholic press. To those who decry
the lack of Catholic intellectuals or who
criticize the Catholic press for being
pietistic, Realities provides an effective
answer. The breadth of subject matter
evidences the versatility of the Catholic
writer. The depth of subject matter
evidences the fact that Catholics are
facing current American problems and
searching for realistic solutions in light
of their faith and philosophy. Topics
treated include labor relations, race
relations, politics, sex, mental health,
censorship, art, atomic energy and the
liturgy.

If one mark can be singled out to
characterize such an diversified group
of essays, it is maturity. The individ-
ual reader may find points of view with
which he disagrees, but at least the
authors have made an attempt to con-
sider problems from more than one
angle without offering facile solutions
that defy practical experience.

Some Are Personal Approaches

Some of the pieces reflect a purely
personal approach to a subject: “How
I Lost My Prejudice” by Bishop Vin-
cent Waters and “If Your Son Should
Ask” by Helen Caldwell Riley (COM-
MUNITY. April, 1956); others, like
“Christianity and the Negro” by John
LaFarge, S.J., present the historical
aspect of the Negro problem.

The puzzling questions of censorship
and freedom are scrutinized by John B.
Sheerin, C.S.P., in “The Goal of Aca-
demic Freedom,” by John Courtney
Murray, S.J., in “Literature and Cen-
sorship,’” and by William Clancy in
“The Area of Catholic Freedom.”
Thomas E. Murray in “Though the
Heavens Fall” suggests that the lead-
ers of the peoples of the world be al-
lowed to witness the explosion of a
hydrogen bomb so that they will have
a strong reason for finding methods to
establish disarmament.

Archbishop Alter in “Industrial
Councils” and Monsignor Hillenbrand
in “Five-Point Social Program” outline
the Church’s social doctrine based on
papal encyclicals. The place of the
Christian in politics is discussed by
Eugene McCarthy and Bishop Mussio.

HELEN CALDWELL RILEY
with her son. Mrs. Riley's
article “If Your Son Should
Ask”—which appeared orig-
inally in COMMUNITY — is
included in the new book
REALITIES.

“Pollyanna Catholicism” by Erik Von
Kuehnelt-Leddihn, “One View of Four
Viewpoints” by Ralph Gorman, C.P.,
“Some Things Are Caesar’s” by John
Cogley and “Catholic Separatism and
Anti-Catholic Tensions” by Gordon
Zahn present certain attitudes taken
by Catholics which create mistaken
impressions of our faith.

Bishop Wright in “The Mass and In-
ternational Order” points out that
Catholics should be the first to over-
come nationalistic narrowness and seek
international understanding through
the Mass. Frank O’Malley writes of
“The Culture of the Church” as influ-
encing our working and living and be-
coming the center of our existence.

The Catholic who is inclined to be
narrow-minded in his belief that every
issue, be it political, social, or moral,
is readily and compactly answered just
by being a,Catholic, as well as the
Catholic who is inclined toward liberal-
ism for its own sake, will be drawn
toward a more sensible center position
when reading Realities. If non-Cath-
olics can be persuaded to read a book
so conspicuously labeled “Catholic,”
much can be gained in clarifying our
thought and position.

—Virginia Boyle

Mrs. Boyle worked in the editorial de-
partment of a publishing house before her
marriage, and was graduated from Mar-
quette University. She lives in Chicago.

pork
ST. BERNADETTE

Excellent biography describes
her too-often forgotten
life after Lourdes

ST. BERNADETTE SOUBIROUS by
Monsignor Francis Trochu, 384 pages.
(Pantheon Books, New York 14, New
York, $4.95.)

HIS LIFE OF St. Bernadette is at

once a very well-documented and a
very readable biography. Such a com-
bination is not an easy one, but Msgr.
Trochu has accomplished it in his work.

The early life of St. Bernadette, and
a history of the visions of Our Lady
of Lourdes form the first two parts of
the book, and are familiar to anyone
who has read any account of the Story
of Lourdes. But the third part of the
book—the story of St. Bernadette as
a Sister of Charity of Nevers, after the
apparitions of Our Lady—has been ob-
scure, and this is regrettable for two
reasons.

First, the story of her growth in
sanctity is every bit as interesting as
that of the apparitions and helps give
us a full understanding of St. Berna-
dette’s greatness. Second, this is the
part of her life that has the most mean-
ing for us, since we can imitate her in
her virtues, whereas her visions were
a very special favor of Our Lady and
set Bernadette off from the rest of us.
This third portion of the book then
makes the work especially valuable.

A Mental Block

Most of us have a mental block con-
cerning the people favored with see-
ing Our Lord or Our Lady. We think
that automatically they became holy
and had no further struggle to attain
sanctity. But as one of St. Bernadette’s
sisters in religion said, “Because she
has seen the Blessed Virgin, she is not
confirmed in grace.”

St. Bernadette realized this very
well. To a priest who told her she had
nothing to worry about because Our
Lady promised to make her happy in
the next life, she replied, “Oh, Father,
not so fast! I shall be happy, yes, but
be careful! Only if I do my duty and
keep on the straight road.” So the story
of her growth in holiness, which has
been so long overlooked, needs to be
told for our benefit, and has been told
ably by Msgr. Trochu.

The outstanding characteristic of St.
Bernadette which shines out in this
book is her simplicity in the correct
sense of the word. Her single-minded-
ness of purpose, her one and only de-

(Continued from page 3)
League, and its churches.

Although his median per capita fam-
ily income is only half that of white
Washington citizens, the Negro’s spend-
able earnings can be his lever to pry
open the tight labor market in which
he finds himself.

Campaign on Store Jobs

A case in point is the present cam-
paign to get Negroes employed in five
leading department stores in Washing-
ton. This campaign is led by a dy-
namic, young Negro minister, the Rev-
erend E. Franklin Jackson, pastor of
the John Wesley AME Zion Church.

Reverend Jackson formed the Com-
mittee for Equal Employment Oppor-
tunity. The Committee first visited the
presidents of the department stores and
asked that they hire on a merit only
basis. The store executives were non-
committal and evasive despite the in-
tervention of the D.C. Commissioners.

So the Committee set out on another
tack.

It had printed and circulated some
800,000 stamps bearing the statement:
“We believe in merit hiring.” The
stamps were placed on checks and bills

MAY, 1958

paid to the stores by their customers.

The Committee next called for a one-
day boycott of these stores by Negro
citizens. The effectiveness of the boy-
cott and the buying power of the Ne-
groes is shown by the fact that the
D.C. Commissioners have appealed to
the Committee to call off the boycott.
The Merchants and Manufacturers As-
sociation and the D.C. Board of Trade
have also met with the Commissioners
in an attempt to avoid the boycott.

Solution Up to Negroes

This campaign has the support of
every Negro civic, religious, and social
group in the District of Columbia.
White local and national organizations
also have offered their support, dis-
tributed stamps, and made contribu-
tions.

But the solutions to these problems
of discrimination lie with the Negro
community. Negroes can be informed
of their rights in public employment
and of available grievance and appeals
machinery. Community organizations
can furnish legal advice and counsel
to complainants. This type of activity
can be carried on under the leadership
of the Washington Urban League, the

Civic Associations, the Washington
NAACP, and the churches.

Yes, the Negro in Washington, D.C.,
has the know-how and the economic
effectiveness necessary to assure him-
self of fair employment opportunities.
This he must do if he is to survive and
if he is to spare his children the same
uphill fight that he is experiencing.

—Julius W. Hobson

A government economist, Mr. Hobson is
an officer of the Committee for Equal Em-
ployment Opportunity, whose work he de-
scribes. He is vice-president of the largest
organization of neighborhood groups in D.C.
(the Federation of Civic Associations) and
on the executive committee of the local
NAACP.

OUR LADY OF PAU statue
—one of the world’s most
beautiful Madonnas — rises
from the bell tower of the
Church of Notre Dame in
Pau, France. Ernest Jean
Gabard is the sculptor.

sire to do the will of God, her courage
in carrying out that will, her perfect
common sense—all these comprise her
simplicity and are brought out in de-

Her lively sense of humor is another
one of her great characteristics. It is
most in evidence during the time of
the apparitions, when she faces so
many interviewers—most of them hos-
tile. It also shows up during her reli-
gious life, when for many years her
novice mistress, failing to comprehend
the sanctity of Bernadette, subjected
her to many humiliations, so that she
would not yield to self-love.

A Difficult Phase

Monsignor Trochu handles this diffi-
cult phase of Bernadette’s life well,
and his findings can be summed up by
the testimony of one of the persons
who knew Mother Marie-Therese and
her failure to appreciate Bernadette’s
holiness: “That all this escaped a per-
son so experienced in the guiding of
souls as was Mother Marie-Therese
would be a mystery for me, did I not
see therein the love of God moulding
His little servant.”

In the discussion of St. Bernadette’s
spiritual life, it is brought out that
there was nothing complicated or elab-
orate about her life or her sanctity.
This would be totally alien to her sim-
plicity. With her unfailing common
sense she went to the heart of the mat-
ter and summed up her life as con-
centrating on “the generous love of
Our Lord.” This was for her the begin-
ning and the end and the way to holi-
ness.

For a thorough and interesting dis-
cussion of the apparitions at Lourdes,
in this centenary year, plus a biogra-
phy of Bernadette that will increase
understanding of the saint of Lourdes,
this work is highly recommended.

—Edith Strom

On the staff of the Visiting Nurse Asso-
ciation in Chicago, Edith has for ten years
been ean ective volunteer at Friendship
House.

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eS
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Rs

24
PS
Pa

ip

MEMO

TO: Subscribers and Friends of COMMUNITY

FROM: Delores Price, Circulation Manager

PROGRESS REPORT: COMMUNITY’s Fourth
Annual Subscription Drive,
April 15 - June 15, 1958

You will be pleased to know we have received 394
subscription dollars so far during this campaign. If re-
turns continue at this rate we will exceed our previous
year’s efforts . . . so please keep up the fine work.

Since so many of you readers have pitched in to get
new subscribers, I think you'll be interested in one of
my recent projects. Last month I sent a letter to people
who had let their subscriptions to COMMUNITY drop.
This was not the usual note asking them to renew, so I’d

better let you read it:

Dear Former Subscriber: We no-
tice that you have not renewed
your subscription to COMMU-
NITY ond we wonder why.

It would be a big help if you
would do us the favor of jotting

down on the reverse side of this
letter your reasons for discontinu-
ing your subscription. Please be
frank and give us the real rea-

S.
Thanks for your help.

Well I thought this time we’d hear anything and every-
thing, but to our surprise, and I do mean surprise, the
responses, and there were many, were all sugar-coated.

“Not a thing wrong except
that our budget was cut this year
and we needed every dollar. God
bless you."—A Virginia Teach-

ing Sister.

“My address is a bit uncer-
tain. . . . | appreciate the ar-
ticles in each issue. . . . The con-
stant stressing of principles, the
many little insights of your work
are both an inspiration and a
help.’—A Southern Seminarian.

“1 was and am still financially
unable to do so. | liked every-
thing about the little publication.
God bless you in all your ef-
forts.”"—A n Woman.

“It is good and | have passed
it on each time | received it. |
really don’t have time to read
it.’—A Busy New Yorker.

“There is nothing wrong with
the paper. It is purely financial.
. . . | remember all the wonder-
ful staff workers | used to know
and | hope you can keep on with

the work.’’—A Wisconsin Friend.

“The paper did not circulate,
but | personally feel you are do-
ing a fine piece of work.’’—A
Sister in Chicago.

“Sorry, | just forgot. Keep up
the good work!’’—A Benedictine
Priest in Oregon.

“The reason is purely finan-
cial. | wish you every success.
Your paper is needed and infor-
mative.’’—A New York Widow.

“Because my dear Sister has
neglected to cough up the do-re-
me — however, | have severely
chastised her. | enjoy reading ev-
ery issue.’’—A Chicago Priest.

". . . difficult to make ends
meet. Believe me, | am in sym-
pathy with your work. .. .“’—
Sympothetic Kentuckian.

“| forgot. . . . | miss it badly,
mea culpa.’’—A Cistercian Monk
in Mississippi.

These letters speak well of COMMUNITY. It means,
too, the many people who were introduced to COMMU-
NITY through gift subscriptions are grateful. Such en-
thusiasm is rewarding and should inspire us all—you
and me—to keep spreading COMMUNITY to more and
more new people. We are still asking for new subscrip-
tions during our annual spring campaign. Won’t you give
us a hand, if you haven’t already done so?

Use plain sheet of paper or coupons below.
RATES
@ Bundles: 10-99 copies, 7 cents each: 100 or more copies,

5 cents each.

@ Subscriptions: $1.00 a year ($1.25 foreign).

COMMUNITY
4233 South Indiana Avenue
Chicago 15, Illinois

0 Bundle of ......... copies

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"COMMUNITY

4233 South Indiana Avenue
Chicago 15, Illinois

(1 Bundle of copies

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(1 Gift—send notification

Send to:
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Address
State

4

Satisfied customers

House Study Week. This year’s course
begins at Childerley Farm August 22.

rani
Lp Ay

A WEEK TO REMEMBER AND

GROW ON

Chicago Friendship House

E WERE REMINISCING recently

with one of the participants in
Friendship House’s last study week in
June, 1955. “It was an eye-opener,” he
said, “I learned so much. That’s one
week I'll always remember.” I was
glowing in his praise—and a little sur-
prised that the week had meant that
much to him.

Thinking about it later and recalling
other such sessions, I realized how far-
reaching the results of these few short
days have always been. Friendship
House does have much to offer—the
fruits of its 20 years’ experience in
interracial work. Being so close to the
work, we sometimes let grow dim the
privilege of this experience and the
privilege of sharing it with others.
What is there, after all, to compare
with it?

So right now we’re planning a ses-
sion for August 22 to 28 and wonder-
ing who will come. COMMUNITY
readers are our most likely prospects
and so we issue first invitations to you.

The Manner—Through Sharing

As we go to press, we are still search-
ing for a name that will adequately de-
scribe the experience. It is a time of
Friendship House workers coming to-
gether with you and people like you
from various parts of the country—
sharing ideas and inspiration, work and
worship, recreation and relaxation.

Whatever its name — this Mutual
Help Session will get underway Fri-
day evening, August 22, with a week-
end at beautiful Childerley Farm,
loaned to us for the occasion by the
Catholic Students of the University of
Chicago.

Here we come together daily for a
fuller participation in the liturgy—
with a recited Mass Saturday, the Sun-
day Sung Mass, and for parts of the
Divine Office. Our chaplain will be
with us, too, to help us deepen our
understanding of the apostolate. And
we will get off to a start tackling the
interracial question specifically.

Explore FH Methods

After the inspiration of the country
week-end we will continue our explor-
ing and discovery with Friendship
House in Chicago as home base.

You will have an opportunity to
study closely Friendship House’s ex-
periences and special techniques to-
ward disarming prejudice and effecting
peaceful integration. You will partici-
pate in one of these—our “Workshops in
Building Friendships,” which are built
around informal visits across the color-
line. It is a simple yet unique program
that you may want to adapt to your

From all over the
country they come.

own community. On another evening
you will join Friendship House’s Com-
munity Relations Group, that meets in
one of the member’s homes, to see how
this small group through mutual help
and inspiration works for integration
in their own neighborhoods.

Two Friendship House staff workers
who publish COMMUNITY will be
with us with ideas on their particular
work in the interracial apostolate. We
have also lined-up the talents of for-
mer staff workers and other volunteers
to provide guidance to meet individ-
ual problems of the participants: for
those planning to organize a small in-
terracial group at home, for those look-
ing for practice in giving panels on in-
terracial justice, for those needing help
in conducting surveys and organizing
field work in various areas of discrimi-
nation—housing, employment, institu-
tions, social life, and public accommo-
dations.

In addition to time studying the
work of Friendship House there will
be visits to other organizations in Chi-
cago. (A number have local groups
throughout the country as well.) One
of these will be the Young Christian
Workers whose national headquarters
is here in Chicago.

Registration Limited

There will be a celebrity or two on
the roster; but mostly we see it as an
experience-in-sharing among “just or-
dinary people” concerned with finding
some answers, in doing some specific
thing that will help form a Christian
mentality in their neighborhoods, and
for finding encouragement and joy in
being with others who also work and
pray for such a goal.

Our aim is to work intensively with
a few rather than seek a large group;
so there will be limited registration.
We do hope some of our COMMUNITY
readers will be among us. If partici-
pants are as enthusiastic as we are
then this will be an introduction to a
year-round follow-up, keeping in touch
with continued exchange of ideas.

Are you interested? For more details
write—Betty Plank, Friendship House,
4233 South Indiana Avenue, Chicago
15, Illinois.

—Betty Plank

COMMUNITY