Download “last round-up” of prejudice by the Catholic Laymen`s Association

FEATURE
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Southern Cross, Page 3
The “last round-up” of prejudice by the Catholic Laymen’s
Association and some fair-minded friends
he Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia, founded in the unruly “teen” years of the 20th Century to deal with
anti-Catholic bias, successfully fended off bitterness against the Catholic Church for years. In 1922, however, the
CLA’s stated goal, “to bring about a friendlier feeling among Georgians irrespective of creed,” faced a real test.
A strange new organization
and nuns. They are enrolling the
On March 15, 1922, Richard Reid,
Negroes and white women to vote as
publicity director of the association,
they dictate in the next election.”
replied to a letter from Annie T.
Those interested in joining the RanFlynn of Atlanta, concerning a
ger organization were urged to sign
strange new organization. “I think
an enclosed application and mail it
the best way to handle the matter
to an office in the Gould
is to publish it (the manifesto
Building in Atlanta. Responof the Protestant Rangers of
dents were assured: “A brothAmerica) in The Bulletin,
er Ranger will call and give
not so much for our own
you complete information.
benefit, as for fair-minded
Do not send any money at
Protestants who are frethis time. Fraternally yours,
quently enticed into such
John Gould, Supreme
organizations under false
Recruiting Ranger.”
Rita
H.
DeLorme
pretenses,” Reid wrote to
A veritable “Joan of Arc”
Flynn.
The “Rangers” were still plodding
Beginning with the statement that
along their own narrow trail in 1928
“Your name has been given to us by
when the editor of The Bulletin of
a good friend of yours as a man very
the Catholic Laymen’s Association—
much interested in the welfare of the
again the tireless Richard Reid—
people whose faith is in the Protescalled attention in an editorial to the
tant religion,” the manifesto of the
visit of a “Ranger” to Bainbridge.
so-called “Protestant Rangers” as reThis time, the national secretary of
printed in The Bulletin, went on to
the “American Rangers” was adversay that membership in the “Rantised as a veritable “Joan of Arc,”
gers” would not conflict with any
reputed by some of her own favorite
Protestant religion or fraternal organsources to be “one of the greatest
ization to which the individual sospeakers the world has produced in
licited might belong and that comany age.”
plete secrecy of membership would
This self-anointed “Saint Joan”
be maintained.
focused on what she called “The
As spelled out in the group’s
Bishop’s Oath,” a vow she translated
credo, potential “Rangers” would
as binding “all Catholics to murder
vote only for Protestants, trade only
in any way in their power Prowith Protestant Americans, be
testants and destroy the United
pledged to the doctrine of white
States government.” This “Joan”
supremacy, campaign to have only
had a number of gimmicks to conProtestant teachers in public schools,
vince the naïve. One was a “great
restrict immigration of “ignorant and
picture” showing “the whole
illiterate foreign born,” oppose any
Protestant Nation Being Murdered
ecclesiastical foreign power having
Two O’Clock One Night in France.”
anything to do with the conducting
For twenty-five cents a person might
or policy-making of the country, and
order a pamphlet entitled, “Should a
would influence American women to
Catholic Be President?” For a dollar,
obtain the vote and to vote only for
a book called “Struggle of the
Protestants.
Ages,” proving the Catholic plot
An added part of the document
against the lives of Protestants, could
warned: “The Catholic Church is
be ordered.
now establishing Negro churches
Pelham to the rescue
and nunneries with Negro priests
The Catholic Laymen’s Associ-
ation fought back with its pamphlets
with titles such as: “Catholics in
American History,” and “Catholicism and Politics.” They were
aided in their efforts by many rightminded people of other faiths. An
example of such fairness was the
action of the citizens of Pelham,
Georgia, who gathered in August
1922 to bar the anti-Catholic, antiJew and anti-Negro Ku Klux Klan
from their city. Heading the movement to keep the Klan out of Mitchell County were W. C. Cooper,
president of the First National Bank
of Pelham, City Clerk J. A. Lewis
and Pelham Mayor A. R. Bags. The
pastor of a local Baptist church in
which a Klan organizer had spoken
sent word from his sick bed that he
had been misled and asked that the
Klan be prevented from organizing
in Pelham. For good measure, the
Pelham City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting parades of masked
men.
Twisted logic
Still, not a surprise, bad feeling
toward Catholics continued to surface. Quoted in a 1928 issue of The
Bulletin was an editorial in the
Cordele Dispatch entitled “Catholic
Emancipation.” The Dispatch, reputedly “the most anti-Catholic daily in
the entire South,” set out to show in
this editorial the ways in which
Catholics had been persecuted
through the ages—an act which
dumbfounded the editor of The
Bulletin. He wasn’t dumbfounded
for long, however, since the Dispatch editorial soon ran true to form
by observing: “We offer it (the
account of anti-Catholic acts) thus
because that far back the British
Empire had troubles with the Romanists in politics which America is
having today.”
The editor of The Bulletin commented on this instance of “reverse
reasoning” by saying: “We can rec-
Official Announcements
ishop J. Kevin Boland has announced the following appointments:
Reverend Thomas J. Peyton—Granted a one-year
medical leave, effective June 27, 2007.
Reverend Daniel F. Firmin—Appointed Chancellor
of the Diocese of Savannah and Pro-Synodal Judge of
the Diocesan Tribunal Office, effective September 1,
2007.
The following men will be ordained priests for the
Diocese of Savannah on Saturday, June 23, 2007, and
B
will begin their assignments on July 5, 2007.
Reverend John Johnson—Appointed Parochial
Vicar of Sacred Heart Church, Warner Robins.
Reverend Aaron Killips—Appointed Parochial
Vicar of Saint John the Evangelist Church, Valdosta.
Reverend David Koetter—Appointed Parochial
Vicar of Saint Teresa of Avila Church, Grovetown.
Reverend Stephen Pontzer—Appointed Parochial
Vicar of Saint James Church, Savannah.
Graphic courtesy of the Diocesan Archives.
T
This pamphlet, produced by the
Catholic Laymen’s Association,
aimed at countering prejudice.
oncile The Dispatch’s professed
hatred of alleged ‘Catholic intolerance’ and its condoning and even
commending Protestant intolerance
on only one ground, and that is that
only prayers, and not appeals to reason, can help its editor.”
Senators walk out
Promise of better times ahead likewise came in 1928 when all but six
members of the U.S. Senate quietly
walked out when Alabama Senator
Thomas (“Tom Tom”) Heflin, an
avowed “hater of the Pope of
Rome,” launched an assault against
“the Catholic-controlled Press.” The
writer of an article carried by the
National Catholic News Service
observed: “Of the six who remained, only two appeared to be
paying any attention.” The attitude
displayed by Senate members on
this occasion reflected the contempt many Americans felt toward
bigots.
In time, hate groups such as the
“Protestant Rangers” could no
longer function openly in a Georgia where the Catholic Laymen’s
Association’s goal of “friendlier
feeling among Georgians irrespective of creed” actually started to be
realized.
Columnist RITA H. DELORME
is a volunteer in the Diocesan
Archives. She can be reached
at [email protected].