Bigotry a shared experience. By Séamus S. ÓhEarcáin

In past several years I have written about centuries of racial bigotry toward the Irish. The origin of this discrimination began when the notorious “Statutes of Kilkenny” in 1366 was enacted - the first ethnic cleansing laws in history, where the Irish dress, language, intermarriage Irish-English were forbidden by law; and, when Henry VIII assumed the mantle of Cæsaropapism of Anglicism in 1536, this sword of intolerance would get an edge of religious bigotry as the Dublin Parliament declared King Henry VIII “…. the only supreme head in earth of the whole Church of Ireland (COI)”. This was followed by the Act for the English order, habit and language, 28 Henry VIII, c.15. The intention of this order was to bring such “rude and ignorant people to the knowledge of God and obedience to their sovereign, they must conform in language, tongue, in manners; order and apparel, with them that be civil people, and do profess and acknowledge Christ’s religion as the English Pale doth.” The Irish were to seek their refuge in their ancient religion – for this they would suffer greatly. During the nightmare of Cromwell, Irish men, women and children would be butchered under the scurrilous tenets of “Manifest Destiny” alias Predestination, and thousands were sent to Barbados as slaves and later intermarried with the slaves brought from Africa - today the feast of Saint Patrick is greatly celebrated by their descendants.

Unfortunately intolerance was part of the baggage brought to the new world by the self-styled ‘pilgrims’. Irish Catholics were forbidden into this chosen land, finally arriving as indentured servants, that eventually ‘melted’ into the fabric of the colonies – however, still forbidden in parts of what would be called New England. When the enslaved Indians fled to such places as Spanish La the English colonizers looked towards Africa as a source of cheap labour and the slave trade flourished.

La Florida, founded by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Captain General of the Indies Fleet and a member of the Third Order of Saint Francis after sighting land on 28 August 1565, the Feast of St. Augustine, hence when he and his part of about four hundred men and four diocesan priest landed on 8 September 1565 (the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary) he named his landing site Saint Augustine. In 1585 Fr. Richard Arthur an Irish priest from Connaught would become the first pastor in what would be America’s first city; and America’s hospital and first school educating Indians and runaway slaves.

The sobriquet “*No taxation without representation” was a great rallying cry for a trade war purposes, but hardly the basis for an all-out revolution. That said most Americans are not aware of the strong religious components that motivated the colonists to wage a war of independence against England. Firstly, New England Congregationalists condemned King George III giving his royal assent, to the 1763 Treaty of Paris (Quebec), that assured religious liberties to Canadian French Catholics; recalling that Catholics were forbidden to live in part of New England; also Congregationalists detested giving tithes to the Church of England, which they considered too “Papists.” * Prior to the Napoleonic wars there was no income tax.

As America expanded waves of Irish Catholic immigrants came to these shores fleeing an uncaring British Empire that regarded them as disruptive savages to their social order. In the 1840’s and 1850’s bowing many State legislatures, bowing to the pressure of the infamous Nativism or “Know Nothing” movement (also known as the American Party), enacted Anti-Irish Catholic statutes disenfranchising these immigrants. This terrorist movement was responsible for the burning of Catholic churches, convents and schools and mayhem directed against Irish- Catholic immigrants in Philadelphia, Boston, New York, etc. that also resulted in numerous

1 deaths and injuries. In 1836, these assaults on Irish Catholic foundations gave birth to the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America, America’s First Civil Rights Organization; thus Irish Catholics were in the forefront of the fight for racial equality – a century before this topic was hijacked by anti-Catholic progressives [italics intentional] since “anti-Catholicism remains America’s last acceptable prejudice.”

Before 1869, all education in Florida was private schools and in 1866 Florida law permitted the education of Negroes – however the occupation authorities refused to enforce. In 1870, Saint Augustine became a diocese and the last of the frontier French bishops in America became the first pioneer bishop of Florida. Encouraged by his Irish born metropolitan, Archbishop Francis Patrick Kendrick of , that had been Bishop of Philadelphia during the terrible years of Nativism, Verot contacted the Sisters of St. Joseph of his home town (Le Puy, France) asking them to “consecrate themselves to the service of the poor Negroes.” In spite of fierce local opposition, the sisters opened their first school for blacks in St. Augustine and by 1876 five black schools were in Florida. Verot’s successor, Bishop John Moore was born in Rossmead, Ireland and studied in Rome.

In 1886, Bishop Moore brought the Benedictines from St. Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania to Pasco County to establish St. Leo’s Abbey, and 1889 inviting the Jesuits of the New Orleans Province take over the missions in South Florida’s eight counties. The exception being , because of its Italian pastor, Flelix Ghione, was canonically irremovable. However, his most significant contribution was the recruitment of priests and sisters from Ireland for service in Florida. Thereafter Irish men and women were to play a crucial role in the history of Florida and Bishop Moore travelled to Ireland and personally recruited seminarians from in Limerick, All Hollows in Drumcondra (Dublin). Later priests would also come from St. Patrick’s in Carlow, St. Cierans in Kilkenny, St. Patrick’s’ in Thurles, and St. John’s in Waterford, to serve the needs of Florida’s expanding church.

The last of the pioneer bishops to Florida was William J. Kenny, an Irish-American (Ó Cionaoith) was particularly sensitive to the plight of Black Catholics. He contacted Mother Katherine Mary Drexel, founder of the 1891 Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Coloured People. Mother Drexel gave Kenny a grant to build the first Black parish in Florida called Saint Benedict the Moor that was dedicated in 1911. Irish nuns were recruited by Bishop Kenny starting in 1904 Bishop Kenny began recruiting sisters of St. Joseph in Ireland Note: Mother Drexel was canonized by his Holiness Pope on 01 October 2000.

On 24 October 1868 the Sisters of the Holy Names of Canada arrived in Key West to establish an academy with a grant of land provided by Stephen R. Mallory. In 1898 the sisters offered the US Navy the use of the Convent of Mary Immaculate in the event of hostilities between the US and Spain. Thus expressing a Catholic patriotism at a time when many American either openly discriminated against Catholics or looked down on them, especially after the 1892 inflation and strikes that forced 2,000 Cubans to move to Tampa (Ybor City).

The first Catholic parish established on Florida’s southeast coast was not in Miami but in West Palm Beach by the Jesuits from Tampa and made possible by the benefaction of two Irish Catholics, Joseph McDonald an architect for the Flagler hotels and John B. Kelly, the first mayor of Miami. In 1914, the 15,600 Cubans outnumbered the 10,000 native-born American Catholics in the Diocese of St. Augustine, although by then the Cuban presence was concentrated in Tampa. Although the population of Florida doubled between 1920 and 1940 to almost two million the Catholics would continue to be a small proportion of the general population scattered throughout the expansive territory.

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Starting in 1911 overt racism and anti-Catholic bigotry sought to stop the expansion of Catholicism in America in general, exacerbated by the rise of nationalism in Ireland, mainly led by Irish Catholics. In 1915 William J. Simmons, a former Methodist preacher re-organized the evil subculture founded by Nathan Bedford Forrest called the Ku Klux Klan at Stone Mountain, as a “patriotic Protestant fraternal society” to combat “un-Americans” this was Klan- speak for Blacks, Jews and Roman Catholics, especially Blacks that were Roman Catholic. We should not dismiss the open antipathy Woodrow Wilson had towards Catholics in general and Irish Catholics in particular. Wilson’s successor, Warren G. Harding was a KKK member - hardly encouraging support from Catholics. Another KKK personality was an Alabama jurist Hugo Lafayette Black that became a US Senator and in 1937 was appointed Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court where he emerged as a champion for the Bill of Rights and a strong constitutionalist. In the early years of the 20th century a strong (re-) emergence of Fundamentalist Christianity swept across America, carrying a crusade of against “Rum and Romanism” and was especially prominent in Florida. In 1913, this crusade would lead to creating the Saint Petersburg County from out of the western part of Hillsborough County. In 1916 Sidney Johnson Catts, an Alabama born Baptist Minister was elected as Governor of Florida (1917-1921). His ran as an Independent Prohibition candidate on a so-called fusion ticket with like minded Democrats and Republicans. His sole campaign platform was “The Roman Catholic Menace” to America. During the critical years between 1914 -1940 two great Irish born Florida Bishops would provide indispensable leadership. Michael J. Curley, born in Athlone and , born in County Clare, both were educated at Mungret College. Curley was ordained in Rome and Barry at Saint Patrick’s in Carlow. The resolve of both of these churchmen would be sorely tested. Florida’s non-Catholic majority would be propagandised with such anti-Catholic publication as “The Menace” and other bellicose publications of Tom Watson - Progressive Era, the American Protective Association, etc.

In 1915, this atmosphere of anti-Catholicism caused Fort Lauderdale School Trustees to sign a letter of protest to Robert E. Hall, Superintendent of Schools, after it was discovered that a certain teacher (Miss Julia Murphy) was a Catholic. The protest read in part: ‘Our attention was called to this by local taxpayers and patrons of our schools and while we do not in anyway desire to interfere with your arrangements, we are opposed to hiring and placing in charge of any of our school work any but Protestants.” The Miami Daily Metropolis reported the citizens backed the ouster of a Catholic teacher: “When 181 out of 188 citizens express their wishes no to have a teacher of the Roan Catholic faith in their school, it may be assured that neither the teacher herself – or none of her fellow churchmen – would desire the situation.”

In 1913 Florida Legislature passed a scurrilous piece of legislation titled: “Act of Prohibiting White Persons from Teaching Negroes in Negro Schools.” In April 1916 three Sisters of St. Joseph who taught at St. Benedict the Moor in St. Augustine were charged with “unlawfully teaching Negroes, and governor Park Trammell ordered the sheriff to arrest the nuns. Bishop Curley gave this injustice widest national publicity and financed subsequent litigation to have the law declared unconstitutional.

In 1922, Bishop Patrick Barry succeeded Bishop Curely and was no stranger to Florida - he had been Chaplin to US troops in Jacksonville in 1898. Bishop Barry with his brother Monsignor William and his sister Catherine who was member of the Dominican Sisters of St. Adrain were key players in the founding of many schools, hospitals and the expansion of the dioceses of Florida. They would become the leader in Florida to effect social change, in spite of many setbacks, such as the Miami Beach city ordnance forbidding “coloured people” from residing in Miami Beach that was accepted by Governor LeRoy Collins who in March 1956 appointed a

3 committee of jurists and lawyers to study legal means to retain segregation, in defiance of the 1954 Supreme Court decision “Brown versus Topeka Board of Education.”

Members of the Cardinal Tomás O Fiaich AOH Division 1 Hillsborough, Florida are key players in the “Trinity Café” scheme. A unique approach to feed the poor and homeless at St. Peter Claver, the predominately black parish in Tampa, by treating “their customers” with dignity - not “soup–line style” but at tables with proclaim and silverware. Wouldn’t you know it? Fr. Lamb, the pastor of St. Peter Claver is an Irishman. We Irish Catholic recall what bigotry is today both in America and in northeast Ireland. Unfortunately, Irish Catholic sisters and brothers fail to communicate to their neighbours that the Ancient Order of Hibernians is primarily a Civil Rights organization.

Further reading: “Cross in the Sand” by Michael V. Gannon, professor of history at the University of Florida. The government of Spain knighted him with the Cross of the Order of Isabel La Católica. Also most important is “Catholicism in South Florida, 1868-1968” and “Catholic Parish Life on Florida’s West Coast, 1860-1968” by Father Michael J. McNally, Professor of Church History at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Philadelphia, Pa. Both Michael Gannon and Father McNally are “ Heritage Trail” Editorial Board members.

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