Father Francis Gilligan and the STRUGGLE for CIVIL RIGHTS

Tom Beer and Tom O’Connell

n September 22, 1955, civil rights leader Maj. Samuel J. after his parents died when he was Otwo hundred of Minneso- Ransom added, “Minnesota and five. The family was upper-middle- ta’s political and civic elite every state needs an Interracial class; his father had owned and gathered in St. Paul’s Lowry Hotel Commission and a Father Gilligan.” 1 operated a local mill. Fall River was to honor Father Francis J. Gilligan The story of Francis Gilligan’s a hardscrabble working-class town. on his retirement as chairman of the emergence as a civil rights advocate Conditions in the cotton mills were Governor’s Interracial Commission— is rooted in the intersections of per- harsh, giving rise to militant labor- a position he had held under four son and history, social action and union organizing.2 governors since the commission was faith. Almost from the day of his Young Frank, as his sisters liked established in 1943. All four of those 1928 arrival in St. Paul as a young to call him, witnessed both the ethnic governors were present, as were priest and professor of moral theol- diversity and the hard living con- leaders of the civil rights coalition he ogy, Gilligan put a Catholic face on ditions of the city. While working had helped build: colleagues from efforts to address economic and ra- summers as a cashier on the Old Fall the Urban League and the National cial injustice. In so doing, he helped River steamship line, he befriended Association for the Advancement of connect the growing power of the black crew members and heard Colored People, the labor movement, labor movement to the energy of the their stories of discrimination and and fellow clergy. One by one, leaders emerging civil rights movement in struggle. Looking back on those days, delivered their heartfelt appreciation, Minnesota. Along the way, he taught, he recalled “racial discrimination saluting their friend for his persis- cajoled, and challenged students and against Negroes, and also industrial tent, effective pursuit of social equal- citizens—Catholic and non-Catholic problems. Someplace or other it was ity. Referring to Gilligan’s legendary alike—to confront their prejudices in my blood.” skills at bridge-building and persua- and embrace social justice. By the time he graduated from sion, Senator Hubert Humphrey de- Gilligan was born in Fall River, high school, Gilligan appeared to be clared, “He has quelled emotion and Massachusetts, on April 26, 1898, marked for scholarship or perhaps exalted reason . . . [he is] a pioneer in and raised by his aunt and uncle the priesthood—not the mills. After the most difficult field of all—human relations.” Citing his “courage and undying devotion to equality,” black Tom O’Connell, a professor of political studies at Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, is a student of Minnesota’s populist and progressive political traditions. Tom Beer worked as a community organizer and union business agent, lobbyist, Facing: Francis J. Gilligan, professor of and political director. He remembers Gilligan’s visits to his father’s hardware store moral theology at St. Paul Seminary and in St. Mark’s parish. civil rights advocate, about 1942

Summer 2011 205 attending Holy Cross College in remembered, to examine American Worcester, he completed bachelor’s racism with a focus on blacks. “If and master’s degrees at St. Mary’s you have any courage, take it up. It’s Seminary in Baltimore in prepara- an undeveloped field.” The result- tion for the priesthood. In 1924 he ing thesis, published in 1928 as The was ordained a priest of the Fall Morality of the Color Line, was the River diocese and, given his aca- first extended treatment of the race demic talent, sent to Catholic Uni- question by an American Catholic. In versity in Washington, D.C., for what would become a characteristic a Ph.D. in moral theology. of his approach, Gilligan combined a sociological exploration of discrimination with a sharp moral critique illigan’s lifelong encoun- based on Catholic social teaching. Gter with Minnesota began when Racism, Gilligan argued, was a grave Archbishop Austin Dowling, leader Archbishop Austin Dowling, who brought sin. Racial prejudice was a social of the St. Paul archdiocese, turned to Gilligan to St. Paul, about 1919 creation, rooted in slavery and re- Fall River for an infusion of clerical inforced through social custom and talent. Dowling had succeeded the economic exclusion. He advocated a legendary John Ireland, who had demic as well as activist, Ryan devel- gradualist approach to ending segre- transformed the church in Minne- oped a theology of social justice that gation, particularly in the South, ar- sota from a frontier backwater to a applied the principles of Pope Leo guing that abrupt efforts to end it in major center of American Catholi- XIII’s influential 1891 encyclical on public facilities could lead to serious cism. Seeing little chance for an aca- capital and labor, Rerum Novarum, disturbances of public order. Later, demic career in the Fall River to American society. Ryan’s 1919 doc- Gilligan would be apologetic about diocese, Gilligan persuaded his ument, Bishops’ Program of Social some of his more cautious, even bishop to release him to Dowling. Reconstruction (the “Catholic miracle,” paternalistic, views on such issues as Thus, the young priest was assigned Upton Sinclair dubbed it), called for interracial marriage and social mix- to teach moral theology at the St. sweeping private- and public-sector ing. His own attitudes would change Paul Seminary following completion reforms such as a minimum wage, as he learned from experience.5 of his doctoral degree.3 unemployment and workmen’s com- But if Gilligan was sanguine about the prospects for an early Racism, Gilligan argued, was a grave sin. end to the most entrenched forms of social segregation, he was very clear about the public actions nec- While at Catholic University, Gil- pensation insurance, labor’s right to essary to attack racial injustice in ligan developed a close relationship organize and bargain, regulation of both the North and the South. He with Fr. John A. Ryan, the nation’s monopolies and government-owned advocated anti-lynching laws, an most influential proponent of Catho- utilities, and workers’ cooperatives end to unjust arrests and biased lic social-justice teaching. Himself a and co-partnerships in industry. courts, increased spending for black Minnesotan, Ryan had taught moral Gilligan would practice in Minne sota education, municipal services, and theology at St. Paul Seminary from the principles Ryan advocated on housing. Applying the teachings of 1902 through 1915. In a career that the national scene.4 Catholic reformers like Ryan, he sug- foreshadowed Gilligan’s own, Ryan In a conversation that proved gested that the rights of labor ought developed close ties with the state’s providential, Gilligan sought Ryan’s to be extended to blacks and that labor and social-reform movements, advice on his thesis topic. Gilligan society embrace programs based on playing an influential role in the pas- had been thinking of a rather aca- the principles of distributive justice, sage of Minnesota’s minimum-wage demic exploration of moral theol- financed through a tax system based legislation in 1912. A writer and aca- ogy. Ryan convinced him instead, he on the ability to pay.

ÓäÈÊÊ iÃÌ>ÊÃÌÀÞ Despite modest circulation, Gilli- gan’s book established him as a member of a small but influential group of Catholics who were concerned about the race issue. By 1931 Gilligan was writing articles for America, the influential, Jesuit-published Catholic weekly, and the Interracial Review. In 1939 the National Catholic Wel- fare Council published a widely read distillation of his views, The Black Worker in White America. He became a close associate of the Jesuit theolo- gian John LaFarge, the church’s most prominent racial-justice advocate.6 These national connections linked Gilligan to the larger effort, but it was in Minnesota that he had his greatest influence.

illigan’s commitment to Gracial and, more broadly, social justice ﬂowed from his understand- ing of Catholic social teaching. Nei- ther his nor the church’s teaching Front-pageFront page news in the Minneapolis Spokesman,Spokesman a Twin CitieCities’s’ was particularly radical. In fact, the black newspaper, March 12, 1937 church was deeply anti-Communist and suspicious of other socialist movements as well; a well-ordered approach to social justice through his mained committed to forging prac- society included the rights of both powerful role as professor of moral tical approaches to achieving his labor and capital. As a young priest, theology at St. Paul Seminary. It was morally based social goals. Fr. Ryan Gilligan worried about the church hard to ignore Fr. Francis Gilligan. had set him on his intellectual becoming too distant from its He projected natural authority based course; now, Fr. Humphrey Moyni- people, as had happened in France. on obvious conviction. “We knew,” han, rector of the seminary, provided Mere opposition to Communism, remembered a former student, “how Gilligan with the social connections thought Gilligan, was a losing battle. active he was in the community.” He necessary to test his theories in the Something constructive was needed: made the subject—whether moral give-and-take of human relation- economic and social reforms based theology, sociology, or economics— ships. Moynihan was well connected on social-justice principles. His com- serve his larger purpose. He im- with both Catholic and non-Catholic ments to a largely black Twin Cities pressed on three generations of fu- ﬁgures in St. Paul’s professional and audience in 1937 on race issues ture priests that the quest of ordinary business classes. A willing mentor paralleled his concerns about class people for economic and racial justice to the promising young cleric, divisions in America: “If I were col- involved profound moral issues at the Moynihan introduced Gilligan to ored and not a Christian, I imagine I heart of Catholic teaching. Not every members of the city’s upper crust would be very receptive towards the seminarian fully embraced the mes- in their homes on Summit Avenue Soviet government.” 7 sage, but few remained untouched.8 and in biweekly meetings of the In- Gilligan conveyed this Catholic Over a long career, Gilligan re- formal Club, comprised mostly of

Summer 2011 207 non-Catholic businessmen in “the building. As his contacts developed, that required an end to economic First National Bank crowd,” Gilligan so did his tactics. Black guests visit- and social segregation.14 remembered. The rector opened ing St. Paul would often witness Through the Urban League, Gil- himself to Gilligan’s suggestions as Gilligan in action. Having made the ligan had the opportunity to work well, often attending the interracial traveler’s room reservation himself, closely with some of Minnesota’s social gatherings that the younger Gilligan would show up at the hotel most effective champions of civil man had already begun to organize. as the guest arrived. If the guest was rights. Taken together, their ac- Moynihan’s well-heeled contacts at denied a room, the priest would an- complishments illustrate the brick- a luncheon that Gilligan staged to nounce it was he who had made the by-brick dismantling of segregated honor black actors helped make the reservation, cajoling management to institutions and cultural practices event a success.9 honor its agreement. As often as not, in Minnesota. Samuel Ransom was Gilligan proved a master at work- the visitor got the room.12 a World War I veteran who led the ing across race and class boundaries. Although Gilligan developed a fight to desegregate the National Contemporaries described him as a wide range of connections with black Guard. S. Vincent Owens, executive man with natural bearing. He was organizations, the most important director of the Urban League from smart and witty, and he leavened his was with the St. Paul Urban League. 1942 to 1950, achieved monumental deeply held social beliefs with self- The league was committed to cul- breakthroughs in employment op- deprecating humor. Being a “man of tivating strong alliances with white portunities for blacks. Clifford E. the cloth” didn’t hurt, either. Black community leaders. Gilligan enjoyed Rucker had directed the state relief community leaders appreciated the a long and fruitful association with agency under Farmer-Labor gover- connections he provided to the wider the organization, beginning with in- nor Elmer Benson (1936–38), the community, while labor leaders were formal connections in the 1930s and most responsible position held by an thrilled to have his blessing—not moving to board membership from African American in state govern- only for his eloquent and persistent 1943 to 1950 and board presidency ment up to that time. He would join support, but for the legitimacy he from 1950 through 1955.13 Gilligan in the mid-1940s to run the conveyed to its Catholic membership There was a natural convergence Governor’s Interracial Council dur- base.10 between Gilligan’s evolving philoso- ing its most effective years as a force Gilligan’s civil rights work took phy on racial issues and the Urban for racial justice.15 root as the Great Depression entered its fifth year and continued to grip Gilligan proved a master at working the nation. By the mid-1930s he had across race and class boundaries. developed significant relationships in local civil rights circles. In 1935 he hosted a dinner at the St. Paul Hotel League’s program and ideology. The Gilligan’s deepest relationship, for James Weldon Johnson, a promi- league’s slogan, “Not Alms, but Op- however, was with Clarence Mitchell nent black poet and author from portunity,” reflected the essentially Jr., a promising young social worker Jacksonville, Florida, who served as middle-class nature of its leadership from Baltimore who served as the St. the first national organizer for the as well as Gilligan’s own ideals and Paul Urban League’s executive direc- NAACP. Following dinner, Johnson social position. Racial progress was tor from 1938 to 1941 before becom- lectured to an interracial crowd of a two-way street. In keeping with ing one of the nation’s most powerful 450 at the YWCA—“the most repre- emerging sociological theories about civil rights leaders as chief lobbyist sentative and most successful meet- urban life, league leaders empha- for the NAACP in Washington, D.C. ing of its kind,” according to Urban sized education and uplift to orient In his brief but formative tenure in League minutes.11 poor southern black migrants to the St. Paul, Mitchell worked closely with Gatherings like these, tame as values, customs, and rhythms of the Gilligan to open up employment op- they may seem to a modern audi- northern industrial city. They also portunities, integrate labor unions, ence, were part of Gilligan’s inten- understood, however, that uplift was and end racial discrimination in tional process of interracial trust impossible without opportunity. And automobile insurance. Acknowledg-

ÓänÊÊ iÃÌ>ÊÃÌÀÞ By the end of the decade, Gilligan no longer needed to wait outside in the cold. Beginning with biweekly meetings with union business agents in 1937, he soon became a regular guest at union meetings. He was widely known in labor circles for his ability to mediate labor-management disputes and for his Catholic labor schools. Classes, held in the evenings at Catholic schools and parishes in the Twin Cities, were taught by union officials, Catholic clergy, and lay ex- perts. Here, the faithful learned the church’s teachings on the rights of labor and the practical arts of union organizing. Gilligan’s closest relationships were with the AFL craft unions and their Central Labor Union bod- Major Samuel Ransom (left) shaking hands with Governor Harold Stassen, ies in St. Paul and Minneapolis. But about 1942; General Ellard A. Walsh of the Minnesota National Guard looks on. he cultivated relationships as best he could with the rival CIO as well—an especially important fact, given the ing Gilligan’s key role in local civil after industry. If unions would open more advanced position on racial is- rights struggles, Mitchell fondly up their ranks to blacks (and other sues held by some industrial unions.19 referred to him as “the Secretary of minorities), a major impediment to Gilligan’s hard-won connections War.” Years later, Mitchell would ap- racial progress could be eliminated with the labor movement had practi- point Gilligan to the labor committee when the long-awaited recovery cal impact on the anti-discrimination of the NAACP—recognition of both finally came.17 cause. In 1938 he supported black Gilligan’s stature and the importance Here, Gilligan was uniquely qual- waiters at the St. Paul Hotel after of Catholic support for the civil rights ified to help. Known affectionately white patron complaints got them cause.16 in union circles as Minnesota’s labor fired. Gilligan joined Urban League As the Great Depression ground priest, he had earned a deep reser- director Mitchell in negotiating a set- on, the Urban League looked beyond voir of respect among union leaders tlement between hotel management cultivating voluntary relationships as the Catholic Church’s most public and the unions. When Gilligan helped with white employers to engaging advocate for labor rights. The respect secure a walk-out threat from unions broader coalitions and embracing had not come automatically. Reflect- that provided other critical services to New Deal government programs. ing on his first contacts with labor in the hotel, management relented. The There was massive unemployment the mid-1930s, Gilligan remembered ousted blacks returned to work.20 generally; blacks, with an already being greeted with suspicion. On one By the end of the 1930s, a restricted job base, suffered dra- particularly cold winter night, he re- genuine civil rights alliance was matically. An Urban League report called being told to wait outside the in place in Minnesota. Anchored in 1938 indicated that 68 percent of Labor Temple before being allowed by the Urban League and NAACP, Twin Cities blacks were either on di- to address the group. “I was tempted promoted by black papers like the rect assistance or working in the New to walk off. But I asked myself what Minneapolis Spokesman and St. Deal’s WPA programs. In Minnesota, St. Paul [the apostle] would have Paul Recorder, supported by progres- a militant labor movement had won done if the door had been closed in sive clergy, labor, and middle-class the right to organize in industry his face.” 18 reformers, the Minnesota effort

Summer 2011 209 St. Cloud Reformatory, and challenge the racial-exclusion policies of the American Bowling League. The commission backed successful legislation banning exclusionary covenants in housing, affirming human rights, and establishing Minnesota’s Fair Em- ployment Practices Commission.23 On a broader level, the governor’s commission symbolized the emergence of a new era in race relations in Minnesota. Through workshops, pamphlets, curriculum guides, and public programs, anti-racist educa- tors engaged thousands of citizens in discussions on the causes and impact St. Paul Urban League event, about 1945; Gilligan is second from right. of racial discrimination. As Minneso- ta’s most visible embodiment of this effort, the commission represented mirrored a quiet revolution that was years, he served in that post as the a new social coalition committed to taking place in northern cities across commission’s driving force. “I ap- advancing a racial-justice agenda. Its the country. The key term linking pointed him,” reflected Thye, because board included Catholic, Protestant, these struggles was “rights.” As an “he seemed to be the one man avail- and Jewish clergy, representatives ideal, if not always practice, New able at the time who could go in and from the Urban League, and a cross Deal leaders promoted an activist sit down with labor, racial groups, section of Minnesota’s civic leaders.24 government that would guarantee and religious or social groups and find Central to the commission’s work rights to jobs, income, and a decent gracious acceptance of them all.” 22 was the development and dissemina- home. In an era before the mass Operating out of the governor’s tion of several key reports that would protests of the 1960s civil rights office with only minimal staff sup- raise awareness of racial issues in movement, interracial organizing in port while also teaching full time Minnesota. In the early years, the multiple forms yielded important at the seminary, Gilligan developed task of organizing the research and victories that challenged—though the commission into a strong force writing the reports fell largely to Gil- did not end—racial inequality in the for advocacy and education. He and ligan. The first and perhaps most North. As a prominent member of executive director Clifford Rucker influential one, The Negro Worker this coalition, Francis Gilligan had traveled throughout Minnesota, in Minnesota, was issued in March written, taught, spoken out, and gathering information, attending 1945. Drawing on data from an acted to end racial discrimination in conciliation sessions, and speaking extensive survey of employers and St. Paul and beyond. With the com- before schools, colleges, and civic labor unions, and supplemented by ing of a new decade and a second groups. A review of commission ac- the first-hand testimony of Urban world war, Gilligan was poised to tions reveals the pervasiveness of dis- League field workers, the report doc- play an even greater role.21 criminatory attitudes and practices umented both significant progress at the time. Under Gilligan’s direc- and enduring racial discrimination. tion, the commission added its sup- At stake was a question of enormous n December 1943 Republican port to campaigns to win admission consequence: Would the dramatic IGovernor Edward J. Thye estab- of blacks into the National Guard, gains in black employment that lished the Governor’s Interracial end segregation of veterans’ burial resulted from war production con- Commission of Minnesota and named plots at Fort Snelling National Cem- tinue in the postwar era? Or would Gilligan its chair. For the next 12 etery, fight racial discrimination at the restrictive hiring practices still

Ó£äÊÊ iÃÌ>ÊÃÌÀÞ in place in many nondefense-related quite a different person from the Gilligan wrote. “It needs to be spark- industries plunge black employment white person . . . . to change [his ra- plugged into action.”28 back to prewar levels? 25 cial heritage] appears to be as tough Job discrimination was not the The report begins by acknowledg- a job as making a white person out only area that needed a spark plug. ing the positive impact of war pro- of a Jap.” On employee opposition: In July 1947 the commission issued a duction on black employment. The “If a Negro having seniority rights report on an equally vexing problem: largest employer of black labor by far were placed in authority over white housing segregation. Once again, The was the Twin Cities Ordnance Plant, men, trouble might result” and “We Negro and His Home in Minnesota which hired 1,000 men and women believe that white employees don’t featured a combination of empirical in 32 job classifications. Other noted like to use the same rest rooms as facts and moral commentary. This employers included Northwest Air- the colored people.” Customer op- time, Gilligan applied the techniques lines, Munsingwear, Brown and Bi- position: “In our business of deal- of the emerging science of polling to gelow, International Harvester, and ing directly with 99 percent white elucidate the issue. The commission Honeywell. housewives, I am afraid Negroes contracted with the Minnesota Poll Not all companies were equal- would not be acceptable.”27 to conduct a random-sample survey opportunity employers, however. The commission report ended that would measure attitudes toward Discreetly omitting specific company on a positive note, reflecting faith in housing integration. A headline in names, the report listed areas where the combined power of education, the Minneapolis Tribune broadcast blacks had limited opportunities, moral suasion, and government ac- its most dramatic finding: “60 Per including department stores, brewer- tion. It called for a broad civic coali- Cent Approve of Jim Crow Areas.” ies, public utilities, mail-order com- tion to champion the cause: labor, And, as the story revealed, 63 per- panies, mills, and other industries. employer, and trade groups, women’s cent would not sell their property to In analyzing why some whites con- clubs, religious groups, and veterans’ a black person, even if he offered a tinued to discriminate, Gilligan organizations. It encouraged schools higher price.29 forthrightly asserted that practices to develop classes in intercultural The report carefully documented were “either actively deliberate or education, while acknowledging the the racial disparity in housing condi- calcified in the form of inert custom.” special role of state government to tions and sharply criticized the use provide focus and leadership. “There If a Negro seeks a job, the em- is latent good will in Minnesota,” ployer sees—not an individual applicant whose qualifications must be ascertained—but the American Race Problem. Immediately, he goes through a mental process quite different from that when the applicant is white. Figuratively, he puts on a different robe, a different mask, and plays an entirely different role. He views this applicant in the light of the Ameri- can race dilemma and usually he refuses employment.26

The report also documented the attitudes that undergirded job discrimination, using quotes from returned questionnaires. On personal conviction: “The Negro is deﬁnitely

Summer 2011 211 of racial covenants, which forbade cessful fi ght to establish a state Fair cess to employment in the postwar homeowners from selling to blacks, Employment Practices Commission. era, civil rights coalitions and their and other discriminatory real estate The battle began in 1947, when the liberal allies in Congress champi- practices. Declaring that forced Governor’s Interracial Commission oned the establishment of a national segregation was a violation of basic recommended the establishment of FEPC. Fourteen fair-employment rights, the commission advocated a state FEPC, and reached its suc- bills were submitted to Congress be- legislative action to ban restrictive cessful conclusion eight years later tween 1944 and 1963. A coalition of covenants and, more fundamentally, in 1955 when the legislature fi nally pro-business Republicans and south- called for a broad change in white enacted the measure. The FEPC, a ern segregationist Democrats was attitudes.30 vindication of the interracial alliance- able to strangle the bill in the U.S. What was at the root of white building that had characterized Gil- Senate.32 resistance to neighborhood integra- ligan’s method throughout his career, While FEPC legislation stalled at tion? Here, once again, the voice of passed with the support of a broad the national level, 11 states outside Gilligan the moralist comes through. civic coalition stretching from labor the South enacted fair-employment- Acknowledging the intense emotions of white opponents, the commis- Fr. Gilligan’s civil rights legacy includes tangible sion asserted that blacks, just like other Americans, had “a very defi nite gains: laws passed, institutions desegregated, moral right” to the freedom to choose job opportunities opened. a home. “In every instance in which the confl ict is between a clear natural right on one hand and intense feel- to civil rights groups, the League of practices laws by 1955. Minnesota’s ing on the other, responsible people Women’s Voters to the Cooperative law shared two key characteristics decide in favor of the moral law and League. Republican Governor Lu- of most of these: a noncoercive ap- insist that such feelings or emotions ther Youngdahl made it a priority. It proach relying on mediation and must be suppressed.” was Orville L. Freeman, however, a voluntary employer compliance, and And how could progress be Democratic-Farmer-Labor governor, an individualistic emphasis requiring made? Refl ecting the ideas of who won legislative authorization to claimants to pursue unresolved dis- intergroup-relations advocates and establish the FEPC, making Minne- crimination complaints through the a newly emerging “open housing sota the tenth state to do so.31 court system.33 movement,” Gilligan recommended The effort in Minnesota paral- Gilligan himself, whether through that churches and neighborhood leled the national struggle for em- belief (he was, after all, a practiced associations foster direct interra- ployment rights. The drive for a mediator) or political realism, sup- cial contact and other peer-to-peer fair-employment commission was ported the plan’s emphasis on efforts to encourage attitudinal rooted in the dramatic confrontation media tion. Not all fair-employment changes. A social-psychological between civil rights leader A. Philip advocates agreed. Concerned that rather than political approach to Randolph and President Franklin D. many individuals would lack the time race-based inequality, the report Roosevelt in 1941. Determined to or money to pursue a case through the reveals Gilligan the sociologist. But, ensure that blacks had access to courts, Albert Allers, president of the ever the student of John A. Ryan, the vast employment opportuni- Minneapolis branch of the NAACP, he also understood that changes in ties created by a wartime economy, worried that a weak law “without laws must accompany and reinforce Randolph threatened to mobilize teeth” would be worse than no law changes in attitudes. 100,000 to march on Washington. at all. Gilligan’s role in the FEPC Bowing to pressure, Roosevelt is- campaign, like the legislation itself, sued Executive Order 8802 in 1941, proved controversial. Opponents, The culmination of Gilligan’s banning racial discrimination in war including more than a few Catholic career as civil rights champion production. Concerned that blacks businessmen, thought Fr. Gilligan was was the long and eventually suc- would once again be denied full ac- getting “too high handed and thought

212 Minnesota History he was God,” according to chronicler Faith. Although his focus was now on Arthur C. McWatt. Others, like Allers, the institutional church, he contin- thought he was standing in the way ued to speak proudly of his work in of a stronger bill.34 the civil rights and labor movements. The struggle for an FEPC—with He died on April 6, 1997, at the age or without teeth—in Minnesota was of 98, a much-beloved figure to those a long one. Over the eight-year pe- he had touched as a pastor, teacher, riod, employer opposition gradually ally, and friend.37 yielded to increasing public support. From its first introduction, the bill enjoyed broad backing from DFLers. r. Gilligan’s civil rights The Republican Party, however, Flegacy includes tangible gains: faced internal conflict. Governors laws passed, institutions desegre- Thye and Youngdahl represented a gated, job opportunities opened. It moderate brand of Republicanism Governor Luther Youngdahl (right) with also represents opened minds and that had wrested power from the left- his predecessor, Edward Thye, 1947 changed attitudes. Today, it is dif- wing Farmer-Labor Party in the late ficult to imagine a Minnesota with 1930s. They, like their national coun- white-only hotels, employment terparts, favored the FEPC. As in Orville Freeman reconstituted that options for African Americans re- the nation, however, key Republican body as the Governor’s Commission stricted to a handful of service jobs, interest groups, including chambers on Human Rights. Under the force- and racially segregated burial plots. of commerce and manufacturing as- ful leadership of Rucker, the new The civil rights coalition Gilligan sociations, resisted the Minnesota commission carried on—and in some helped build reduced (though hardly legislation. By 1955 enough members cases, expanded—the civil rights ad- ended) overt social and economic of the state’s Conservative (mostly vocacy pioneered by Gilligan and his discrimination in Minnesota. It Republican) legislative caucus joined associates. The myriad laws, commis- paved the way for the establishment with the Liberal (mostly DFL) cau- sions, reports, and public-education of a strong black middle class. The cus to win passage. (Until 1974 state efforts growing from their work priests he taught and the laity he lawmakers were elected on a nonpar- created the framework for the civil inspired would carry the Catholic tisan basis.) The bill’s unlikely Senate rights institutions and practices that social-justice tradition to the move- author was Gerald T. Mullin, a North continue in Minnesota to this day.36 ments of the 1960s and beyond.38 Minneapolis DFLer who caucused Gilligan’s retirement coincided Yet in Minnesota, as in the na- with the Conservatives and was most with the emergence of a militant tion, race-based socioeconomic famous for his support of the utility national civil rights movement that inequality remains. Looking back, industry. His backing of the FEPC overshadowed the conciliatory work Gilligan’s studied gradualism, his yen stemmed from his close relationship of prior decades. If the activist priest for conciliation, and his deep faith in with Gilligan, a relationship rooted held strong opinions about genera- moral education might seem naïve in the Catholic Church and stretch- tional and strategic shifts in advocacy, to some. But there was nothing soft ing back to the 1940s when Gilligan the record seems silent. In 1957, at about his insistence on a socially en- had recruited him to teach labor law age 59, Gilligan retired from the sem- gaged church. He resisted radicalism, in his Catholic labor schools.35 inary to assume a major role as pastor but his steady assertion that racial For Gilligan, the passage of the of St. Paul’s thriving St. Mark’s parish. and economic justice were insepa- FEPC legislation represented a cul- He made this career shift with appar- rable remains as relevant today as it mination of almost 30 years of civil ent ease and again quickly asserted a was then. History yields, but it never rights work. Less then two months leadership role in community affairs. yields completely. There remains after its passage, he announced his Fifteen years later, Gilligan was ap- the man. “His life,” declared Clar- retirement as chair of the interracial pointed director of the archdiocese’s ence Mitchell Jr., “is a sermon on the commission. The following year, Center of the Propagation of the power of a good man over evil.” 39 a

Summer 2011 213 Notes 1. Minneapolis Star, Sept. 22, 1955, p. 17. 7. Minneapolis Spokesman, Mar. 12, cates and Activists . . . St. Paul, Minnesota, 2. Here and two paragraphs below, “A 1937, p. 1. 1802–1985 (St. Paul: Papyrus for NAACP, Catholic Vision of Social Justice: Msgr. 8. Revs. Frederick Mertz and Edward 2009), 44, 89, 104–07, 117, 130. Francis Gilligan,” conference panel, The Flahavan, interviews by authors, St. Paul, 16. Denton L. Watson, Lion in the Face of the People of God: A History of the Dec. 9 and July 28, 2009, respectively, Lobby: Clarence Mitchell, Jr.’s Struggle for Archdioceses of St. Paul-Minneapolis, Uni- author notes. Mertz, a student of Gilligan, the Passage of Civil Rights Laws (Blue versity of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Oct. 16, described him as widely read, practical, not Ridge Summit, PA: University Press of 2000, author’s notes; Francis J. Gilligan, a theorist, a very good teacher. Flahavan America, 2002). Gilligan’s and Mitchell’s interview by Dr. Robert Fogerty and Dr. affirmed that Gilligan’s commitment to collaboration often was covered by the Joseph Connors, Apr. 20, 1983, transcript, racial-justice issues in both the classroom black press; see, for example, Minneapolis p. 1, Gilligan Papers, Dept. of Special Col- and community combined with an orthodox Spokesman, Mar. 24, 1939, p. 1, Apr. 21, lections, O’Shaughnessy Frey Library, Uni- view of Catholic teaching on marriage and 1939, p. 1. versity of St. Thomas, St. Paul; Phillip T. sexuality; see also student and parent letters, 17. St. Paul Urban League, Employment Silvia Jr., “The Position of the New Immi- box 1, 1928–1938, Gilligan papers, Archdio- and Industrial Committee report, Oct. 12, grants in the Fall River Textile Industry,” In- cese archives. Marvin R. O’Connell, Pilgrims 1935, Urban League Records, MHS. On ternational Migration Review 10 (Summer to the Northland: The Archdiocese of St. Paul, coming to St. Paul, Mitchell said his goal 1976): 221–32; Jessica Resnick-Ault, “Fall 1840–1962 (Notre Dame, IN: University of was to open up labor unions to blacks and River: Through the Mill, from the Ashes,” Notre Dame Press, 2009), 465–66: “Classes sell blacks on the value of unions; Watson, Providence Journal, Sept. 5, 2003, p. 1–5, with Father Gilligan were always memora- Lion in the Lobby, 114. www.projo.com/news/content/projo. ble . . . the raspy voice, which never quite 18. St. Paul Dispatch, July 25, 1974, p. 30. 3. Dowling was a mentor to Gilligan be- lost its New England twang, the choppy 19. Wingerd, Claiming the City, 266–67; fore and after he arrived in St. Paul; Dowl- hand motions, the ruddy face beneath in his Minneapolis Labor Review, June 14, 1940, ing letters, box 1, 1925–28, Msgr. Francis later years a shock of white hair, and the re- p. 2; St. Paul Pioneer Press, Dec. 14, 1947, Gilligan Papers, Archives of the Archdio- markable, beautiful smile which however p. 11. Gilligan’s connection to the AFL was cese of St. Paul and Minneapolis; Gilligan didn’t always intimate good humor.” cemented by friendships with Ray Wentz, interview transcript, 1. 9. Gilligan interview transcript, 6–7, 22 St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly orga- 4. Unchecked exploitation by capitalism (quote). Moynihan was secretary to John nizer, and George Lawson, Minnesota AFL and the fear of workers’ acceptance of so- Ireland and president of St. Thomas College secretary and chief lobbyist at the state cap- cialism lay behind the encyclical. Rerum before becoming rector. The Informal Club itol. Gilligan attended the first CIO state novarum (Of New Things) condemned the met to discuss issues of the day. Moynihan convention and had friends in CIO unions, industrialization that drove rural people off always attended. Gilligan said the club was but his connection with the AFL was always the land and into urban factories. Ryan’s so-named because members did not dress stronger. Gilligan mediated a number of book, Distributive Justice: The Right and formally for dinner. labor-management disputes over the years; Wrong of our Present Distribution of Wealth 10. On Gilligan’s skills see, for example, in his most famous effort, he was credited (New York: MacMillan, 1916) also focused Minneapolis Spokesman, Mar. 12, 1937, with helping end one of the state’s most bit- on morality. p. 1, May 21, 1937, p. 1; Minneapolis Labor ter labor conflicts—the 1938 Duluth news- 5. Here and below, Francis J. Gilligan, Review, Apr. 12, 1940, p. 2, Apr. 19, 1940, paper strike. See Duluth News Tribune and The Morality of the Color Line, An Exami- p. 1; Mary Lethert Wingerd, Claiming the St. Paul Dispatch, both May 27, 1938, p. 17. nation of the Right and the Wrong of the City: Politics, Faith and the Power of Place 20. Minneapolis Spokesman, Oct. 20, Discriminations Against the Negro in the In St. Paul (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University 1939, p. 1. United States (St. Paul: The Archdiocese, Press, 2001), 266–67, also noting that most 21. On the northern civil rights move- 1928). Gilligan dedicated his thesis to labor leaders in St. Paul were Catholic and ment as a “rights revolution,” see Thomas J. Dowling, “in reverence and gratitude.” On held equal allegiance to church and union. Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgot- Gilligan’s later view of this work—and the 11. St. Paul Urban League, board min- ten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North views of others—see David W. Southern, utes, Feb. 28, 1935, St. Paul Urban League (New York: Random House, 2008). For a John LaLarge and the Limits of Catholic Records, Minnesota Historical Society Minnesota-based perspective, see Jennifer A. Interracialism, 1911–1963 (Baton Rouge: (MHS). Delton, Making Minnesota Liberal: Civil LSU Press, 1996), 99; Gilligan interview 12. Fall River Anchor, June 19, 1987, Rights and the Transformation of the Dem- transcript, 3–4 (quote). p. 21. To be safe, Gilligan had a white col- ocratic Party (Minneapolis: University of 6. See, for example, Francis J. Gilligan, league check on room availability before Minnesota Press, 2002), 40–78. “Jim Crow and the White Worker,” America, the black guest arrived. 22. Minneapolis Tribune, Sept. 15, 1955, Apr. 4, 1931. From 1926 to 1963 LaFarge 13. St. Paul Urban League Records, MHS. p. 17. Gilligan served under Republican was writer, associate editor, and editor of 14. St. Paul Urban League, Annual Re- governors Thye, Luther W. Youngdahl, America. He praised Gilligan’s early work ports, 1943–96. For an insightful analysis and C. Elmer Anderson, and Democratic- on race and encouraged him to continue of the league’s evolution, see Touré F. Reed, Farmer-Laborite Orville L. Freeman. writing on civil rights and labor unions; Not Alms But Opportunity: The Urban 23. Minneapolis Star, July 7, 1955, p. 20; Francis J. Gilligan Correspondence and League and Racial Uplift, 1910–1950 (Cha- Governor’s Interracial Commission, collec- Clippings, John LaFarge, SJ Papers, pel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, tion inventory and agency history record, George town University Library, Special 2008). For the early years of the local league, Dept. of Human Rights Records, State Ar- Collections Division, Washington, D.C. He see Whitney M. Young, “History of the chives, MHS. Rucker was appointed the later called Gilligan one of the great apos- St. Paul Urban League” (master’s thesis, commission’s first executive director in 1947. tles of the social teachings of the church University of Minnesota, 1947). 24. On the new era in anti-racism edu- and authored a complimentary profile on 15. On Ransom, Owens, and Rucker, see cation, see Delton, Making Minnesota the twenty-fifth anniversary of Gilligan’s or- Arthur C. McWatt, Crusaders for Justice: Liberal, 41–55. In 1945 the board had 13 dination; America, Dec. 12, 1949. A Chronicle of Protest by Agitators, Advo- members, including five clergy and Ransom

Ó£{ÊÊ iÃÌ>ÊÃÌÀÞ 1955, p. 1; League of Women Voters, pro- FEPC lobbying material, 1949, Minnesota League of Women Voters Records, MHS; Otto F. Christianson, anti-FEPC memo, 1949, in Governor’s Interracial Commission, Dept. of Human Rights Records, MHS. For a brief summary of Mullin’s career, see his obituaries in the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Minneapolis Star Tribune, Apr. 29, 1982, and biographical information, Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, St. Paul. Labor school classes were held between September and June. At one, Gilligan taught “Socialism: What is it? What it is not?;” A. P. Eberl of the Coal, Ice and Build- ing Materials Drivers Union handled “How to Negotiate a Labor Contract;” and Mullin lectured on “A Lawyer Looks at the Taft Hartley Act.” 36. St. Paul Pioneer Press, June 18, 1955, p. 1. See also Governor’s Commission on Human Rights Records, MHS. 37. Catholic Spirit, Apr. 17, 1997, p. 14. At age 92, Gilligan turned out to meet church and Minneapolis Building Trades members; Minneapolis Labor Review, Dec. 21, 1990, p. 12. Looking back on his life, Gilligan continued to speak with pride of Billboard, Minnesota State Fair, 1948. From left: probably Cecil Newman, editor of the his racial-justice work; see, for example, St. Paul Dispatch, July 25, 1974, p. 30. Ironi- Minneapolis Spokesman, unidentified man, and Governors Youngdahl and Thye. cally, Gilligan’s success helping his parish avoid disruption from the construction of Interstate Highway 94 through St. Paul did and Owens of the Urban League. 31. St. Paul Recorder, Jan. 17, 1947, p. 1; not help the nearby black Rondo neighbor- 25. Here and below, Governor’s Interra- St. Paul Pioneer Press, Jan. 25, 1947, p. 9. hood, which was cut in half despite signifi- cial Commission, The Negro Worker In The Minnesota law declared policy “to fos- cant protest. Minnesota (1945), 5–9, 12–14. Other re- ter the employment of all individuals . . . 38. According to St. Paul civil rights ac- ports included The Negro and His Home in regardless of their race, color, creed, reli- tivist Allie Mae Hampton, the struggle for Minnesota (1947); The Indian in Minne- gious or national origin, and to safe guard the FEPC did result in some modest but sota (1947); Race Relations in Minnesota their rights to obtain and hold employment important changes: “It used to be open dis- (1948); Negroes and Whites as Fellow Work- without discrimination;” Minnesota Session crimination here . . . but now it’s more re- ers (1948); The Oriental in Minnesota Laws 1955, ch. 516. fined. I think that is all to the credit of the (1949); The Negro Worker’s Progress in 32. Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty, FEPC;” St. Paul Pioneer Press, Feb. 26, 1961, Minnesota (1949); The Indian in Minne- 92–121. sec. 4, p. 8. Revs. Flahavan and Mertz both sota (1952); and The Mexican in Minnesota 33. William J. Collins, “The Political attested to the influence of Gilligan on their (1953). A letter of transmittal accompanied Economy of Race, 1940–1964: The Adop- generation of priests; 2009 interviews. Di- early reports, noting that Gilligan was the tion of State-Level Fair Employment Legis- rectly or indirectly, Gilligan-inspired clergy author in consultation with an advisory lation,” National Bureau of Economic participated in 1960s-era civil rights, the committee. Research Historical Working Paper 128 emerging community-organizing efforts of 26. Negro Worker in Minnesota, 17–20, 25. (June 2000): 34; Minnesota Session Laws the 1970s and ’80s, and a host of congrega- 27. Negro Worker in Minnesota, 27–31. 1955, ch. 516, sec. 8, 9, 10. The law provided tion-based social-justice efforts today. 28. Negro Worker in Minnesota, 49–53. for complaints, timelines, commission in- 39. Juanita and Clarence Mitchell to 29. Minneapolis Tribune, July 27, 1947, quiries, mediation, review, notice, court re- chairman, Gilligan retirement testimonial p. 1, 9. view, and appeal. dinner, telegram, Sept. 14, 1955, Governor’s 30. Here and two paragraphs below, 34. St. Paul Recorder, Jan. 17, 1947, p. 1; Interracial Commission records. On the Governor’s Interracial Commission, The McWatt, Crusaders, 136. limits of Minnesota’s approach to racial jus- Negro and His Home in Minnesota, 71–77 35. Delton, Making Minnesota Liberal, tice in the pre-Martin Luther King era, see (quotes, 72–73). The report highlighted the 110–16; Minneapolis Labor Review, Sept. 22, Delton, Making Minnesota Liberal, 160–69. role of banks, real estate boards, and real estate agents in perpetuating housing discrimination. A 1919 Minnesota statute pro- hibited restrictive covenants on the basis The photo on p. 204 is courtesy of the University Archives, University of of religious faith or creed but not race; the St. Thomas Libraries, St. Paul; all others are in MHS collections. commission proposed amending the law to include race.

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