early twenty-first centuries clearly indicates the necessity for continued retrieval of African American narratives to aid the Church in more adequately confronting white supremacy. In addition, Cone asserts that white theologians, like me, can play a role in black freedom if they are willing to reorder their theological priorities according to an African American cultural viewpoint.125 As a forgotten black Catholic who dedicated his life to fighting racial injustice, Dr. Arthur G. Falls is an indispensable resource for those wishing to improve on contemporary Catholic racial thought. Therefore, the next chapter will narrate the life of Falls, and chapter 3 will critique his writings.
1. Nilson, Hearing past the Pain, 31. The FCC will be mentioned only briefly here; the focus in this section will be the theology and praxis of LaFarge. The FCC will be addressed more concretely in the next two chapters through Arthur’s involvement with the organization.
2. Southern, John LaFarge, 362.
3. Massingale, Racial Justice, 47–50.
4. Nilson, Hearing past the Pain, 32. The organization eventually became known as the Catholic Interracial Council. Markoe would leave the organization in the fall of 1935. Nickels, Black Catholic Protest, 206.
5. Southern, John LaFarge, 361.
6. John LaFarge, Interracial Justice, 152–61, 172. Emphasis in the original.
7. LaFarge, The Race Question and the Negro, 84.
8. LaFarge, Interracial Justice, 179–87.
9. Southern, John LaFarge, 358.
10. LaFarge, Catholic Viewpoint on Race Relations, 31, 64.
11. Ibid., 71–73.
12. Southern, John LaFarge, 366. For more information on moral suasion in the papal encyclical tradition, see Berrera, “The Evolution of Social Ethics”; Brady, Goodpaster, and Kennedy, “Rerum Novarum and the Modern Corporation”; and Francoeur, “In Pursuit of a Living Wage.”
13. Cronin, “Religion and Race,” 472; McGreevy, Parish Boundaries, 90–91.
14. National Catholic Welfare Conference, Discrimination and the Christian Conscience, 192.
15. Ibid.
16. Massingale, Racial Justice, 56–58; Report of the National Advisory Committee, 91–93. The Kerner Report was the popular name for the Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, which President Lyndon B. Johnson requested of a blue-ribbon citizen commission in the wake of dozens of riots in the summer of 1967. The two largest riots were in Detroit and Newark. All together, the riots resulted in close to $100 million in damage and eighty-four deaths.
17. National Conference of Catholic Bishops, National Race Crisis, 175, 178.
18. Ibid., 176.
19. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 175; Report of the National Advisory Committee, 229–65.
20. King, quoted in Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 186–87.
21. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 175.
22. Engel, “The Influence of Saul Alinsky,” 651; National Race Crisis, 176–78; Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 186.
23. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 186.
24. John McCarthy, quoted in Engel, “Influence of Saul Alinsky,” 651.
25. “Bishop John E. McCarthy,” Diocese of Austin Website.
26. McCarthy, quoted in Jennings, Daring to Seek Justice, 4–5.
27. Jennings, Daring to Seek Justice, 5. I contacted both the Catholic University of America and an archivist with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, but neither could locate the supporting document.
28. Massingale, Racial Justice, 60.
29. Jennings, Daring to Seek Justice, 8–78.
30. National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Brothers and Sisters to Us, 1–2, 14. Bryan Massingale notes that black Catholics played an “integral part” in Call to Action and raised awareness concerning racism to their fellow Catholics. Massingale, Racial Justice, 63.
31. Brothers and Sisters to Us, 3, 5.
32. Ibid., 8, 11–14.
33. Davis, interview by author.
34. Brothers and Sisters to Us, 11.
35. Massingale, Racial Justice, 66–67.
36. Davis, interview by author; Massingale, Racial Justice, 75; Black Bishops of the United States, “What We Have Seen and Heard.” References to this document refer to the page numbers.
37. Brothers and Sisters to Us, 11–13.
38. “What We Have Seen and Heard”, 1.
