Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 1993 An Historical Analysis of the Racial, Community and Religious Forces in the Establishment and Development of St. Monica's Parish Chicago, 1890-1930 Helen Kathryn Marie Rhodes Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Rhodes, Helen Kathryn Marie, "An Historical Analysis of the Racial, Community and Religious Forces in the Establishment and Development of St. Monica's Parish Chicago, 1890-1930" (1993). Dissertations. 3256. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/3256 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1993 Helen Kathryn Marie Rhodes AN HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF THE RACIAL, COMMUNITY AND RELIGIOUS FORCES IN THE ESTABLISHMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF ST. MONICA'S PARISH CHICAGO, 1890-1930 by HELEN KATHRYN MARIE RHODES A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Education of Loyola University of Chicago in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education January 1993 (c) 1993, Helen Kathryn Marie Rhodes Acknowledgements I wish to especially thank my committee members, Fr. F. Michael Perko S.J., Ph.D. (chair), who provided direction, support, positive and constructive critique along with encouragement; Mary Jane Gray, Ph.D., my advisor throughout my doctoral studies was always available and exercised extreme patience and kindness during the dissertation writing; and Gwendolyn Trotter, Ph.D., who has been a continuous source of inspiration, who challenged my thought processes, yet conveyed confidence of completion of this project. Many people, organizations and facilities helped make this research possible. I am particularly grateful to Cyprian Davis, author of the History of Black Catholics in the United States; Father Donald J. Ehr, Pastor of St. Elizabeth Church; Treadwell Merrill, Reference Librarian, Chicago State University Douglas Library; Regenstein Library, University of Chicago; Nancy Sandleback, Assistant Archivist, Archdiocese of Chicago Archives; Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, st. Elizabeth School and Convent; Ralph Tyler, Ph.D., who provided the initial structure for the research; Woodson Library, Branch of the Chicago Public Library; and my typist, Jamie Burgess, for all of her long ii hours and hard work in accomplishing this task; Family and Friends who endured the labor will share the fruition. iii VITA The author, Helen Kathryn Marie Rhodes, was born July 27, 1938 in Chicago, Illinois. She is the daughter of Lily Kate {Sykes) Rhodes and Joseph Edward Rhodes. Her educational achievements include: St. George Grammer School, 1952; St. Dominic High School, 1956, Chicago State University, B.A., 1982; and Chicago State University, M.S., 1983. She is currently an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at Chicago State University. iv DEDICATION To My Ancestors The Families of Hawkins Lavandier O'Brien Rhodes Sykes v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . VITA . DEDICATION . Chapter I. INTRODUCTION . 1 PART I THE STATUS OF BLACK AMERICANS AT THE TURN-OF-THE CENTURY . 7 II. WASHINGTON VERSUS DU BOIS. 7 Introduction . 7 Booker T. Washington and the Philosophy of "Separate Development" . 8 W.E.B. Du BOis and Niagara Movement. 11 Chapter Summary and Conclusion . 17 III. THE GREAT MIGRATION AND ITS IMPACT UPON BLACK LIFE IN THE NORTH. 19 Introduction . 19 Causes of the Great Migration. • . 24 Economic "Push" Factors: Depressed Conditions and Lack of Economic Opportunity for Southern Blacks. 25 Economic "Pull" Factors: Opportunity in the North ..................... 26 Political "Push"/Injustice and Second Class Status of Southern Blacks. 28 Recruiting Agents and The Black Northern Press 29 The Vision of Greater Educational Opportunity. 31 The Multiplier Effect of Interpersonal Networks . • . • . 3 4 Black Congregations and the Great Migration as a Religious Pilgramage. 35 Additional Factors Behind the Emergence of Chicago as a Mecca of the Great Migration. 37 The Consequences of the Great Migration for vi Page Race Relations: The Example of Chicago. 38 Residential Succession and the Emergence of the "Black Belt" . 41 Black Occupational Status. 46 Race and Public Accommodations . 49 The Great Migration and Educational Opportunities for Blacks • . 51 The Intensification of Black/White Conflict. 58 The Culmination of Conflict, the Riot of 1919. 59 Chapter Summary and Conclusion . 60 IV. THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND RACIAL ISSUES 63 Introduction: Hindsight and the Moral High Ground . 63 The Position of the American Bishops on the Issue of Slavery Before and During the Civil War. · . · · · · · 67 The Second Plenary Council in Baltimore, 1866. 71 Foreign Missions and Religious Order . 74 The Third Plenary Council in Baltimore, 1884 . 79 The Work of Katharine Drexel . • 81 The Healy Brothers . 84 Chapter Summary and Conclusion . • . 86 PART II THE EMERGENCE OF IDEOLOGICAL, POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS FACTIONALISM AT THE LOCAL LEVEL . 88 v. FACTIONALISM IN BLACK CHICAGO AND THE TRIUMPH OF "SEPARATE DEVELOPMENT" .. 88 Introduction • . 88 The "Old Guard" Militants ..... 92 The Business Class Accommodationists . 95 The Debate in Chicago's Black Press ..... 99 Organizational Manifestations: The NAACP Vs. Business League ................ 101 The Advantages of and Triumph of the Accommodationists. ....... 104 Summary and Conclusion . 112 VI. RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION AMONG CHICAGO'S BLACKS AND THE EMERGENCE OF BLACK CATHOLICISM IN CHICAGO. • . 114 The Distribution of Blacks Among Christian Denominations. 114 Chicago's Black and "white" Religious Affiliations . 115 vii Page The Great Migration and the Rise of Storefront Black Churches. .... 116 Impact of the Great Migration on the "Old-Line" Congregations . 118 Transformation in the Social Outlook of Chicago's Black Congregation . 118 Black Catholics in Chicago . 119 The Impact of the American Church's Stance Upon Black Catholics in Chicago ........ 121 The Accession of Archbishop Mundelein and the Formalization of Racial Segregation in the Chicago Archdiocese. • . 127 Chapter Summary and Conclusion . 140 PART III ST. MONICA'S PARISH .. 144 VII. THE LIFE OF FATHER AUGUSTINE TOLTON ...... 144 Introduction . • . 144 Early Background . 145 Religious Education in the United States . 146 Continuation of Tolton's Education in Rome and His Assignment to the United States. 147 Experience in Quincy . 149 Reassignment to Chicago. 152 Tolton's Work At St. Monica's ......... 153 Conflicting Appraisals of Tolton's Career ... 156 VIII.ST. MONICA'S AND ST. ELIZABETH'S . 158 Tolton's Arrival and the Construction of St. Monica's . 158 Father Riordan Supervises a Mission to St. Monica's Father John Morris Becomes the Resident Priest, 1897-1917 .... 161 The "Techny" Fathers at St. Monica and Archbishop Mundelein's Order •... 162 The Merger of St. Monica's With St. Elizabeth's ..•......•........ 167 St. Monica's School .............. 171 IX. CONCLUSION AND ANALYTICAL DISCUSSION ..... 176 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 188 viii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This dissertation examines the historical dynamics behind the establishment and growth of a separate structure of catholic worship and education for blacks in Chicago at the turn of the twentieth century. It revolves around a single research questions: How did racial, community, and religious forces in the city of Chicago at the turn of the century contribute to the emergence of a racially-divided, "parallel" Catholic parish? Although the background to this inquiry is quite broad, it can be briefly sketched in the space of a few short paragraphs. Entering the final decade of the nineteenth century, Chicago was on the cusp of intensifying racial conflict and community fractionalization. By 1890, the city had an established legacy of progressivism in race relations, the strong statutory enforcement of legal rights for its black population, and the extension of economic, social, and political opportunities to blacks. While Chicago's black community was already beginning to show signs of concentration into a "black belt," Negroes in pre- 1890 Chicago were residentially dispersed throughout the 1 2 burgeoning metropolis. All of this was about to change. Chicago's black populace would grow by leaps and bounds over the course of the next three decades, from barely 5,000 to over 100,000, much of the growth being the result of Great Migration from the South before and during World War I. As this took place, competition between blacks and Chicago's immigrant ethnic groups for economic, political and social opportunities intensified; a black ghetto was created in the city's second and third wards; lax enforcement of existing civil rights statutes, regressive segregationist movements, and outright violence between races began to rule the day. A gross contradiction erupted between Chicago's nominal commitment to equality between blacks and whites, on the one hand, and the de facto segregation of the races. The black community's response to this was fragmented. While dividing its leadership between pro-Washington and pro-Du Bois lines is certainly an over-simplification, close scrutiny indicates that the community's