Students attended this presentation on the history of the integration of Jesuit High School of New Orleans, given by alumni director Mat Grau ’68 and director of student activities Michael Prados ’83. The 50th Anniversary of the integration of Jesuit High School was celebrated Feb. 25-March 1 with a series of events, films, concerts, and panel discussions for students. Read more: http://jesuitnola.org/cgi-bin/j.pl?i=207859

1. Jesuit High School
. . . for the greater glory of God

3. Commemorate
Educate
Celebrate

4. A Look at How Jesuit High
School Came to be Integrated

5. background
1896 - Plessy v. Ferguson – “separate but equal”
Homer Plessy

6. Press and Royal Streets

7. 1896 U. S. Supreme Court
Edward Douglass White (1865)
1844 - 1921

8. Jim Crow Laws – 1876 - 1965

11. Montgomery Bus Boycott
December 1, 1955 - Beginning of Civil Rights Movement

12. 1954 – Brown v. Board of Education
• Reverses Plessy vs. Ferguson
• Rules “separate but equal” is unconstitutional

13. Archbishop Joseph F. Rummel
1935 - 1964

14. Archbishop Rummel’s Legacy
• Took the archdiocese from the Great Depression
to the Civil Rights Movement
• Catholic population doubled to 762,000
• 45 new parishes between 1947 and 1965
• Catholic school children grew from 40,000 to 85,000
• 7 new high schools, including St. Augustine in 1951 and
Archbishop Shaw, Archbishop Chapelle,
Archbishop Blenk, and Archbishop Rummel in 1962
• Desegregated the archdiocese

15. Archbishop Rummel’s Road to Desegregation
1948 desegregates archdiocesan seminary
1948 cancels Holy Hour event in City Park
1951 orders removal of “white” and “colored” signs
from all parish facilities
1953 issues pastoral letter “Blessed Are the
Peacemakers” officially ending segregation
within archdiocesan churches

16. 1955 creates a committee to study integration of schools in
kindergarten and first grade after September 1956
1956 The Jesuit Bend Incident – a black priest,
Fr. Gerald Lewis, is barred by parishioners
from entering the chapel to celebrate Mass
1956 issues pastoral letter “The Morality of
Racial Segregation” further explaining the
ramifications of segregation -“racial segregation is
morally wrong and sinful because it is a denial of the
unity and solidarity of the human race as conceived by
God in the creation of man in Adam and Eve”

17. 1962 March 27 - announces segregation would end in
school system with the 1962-1963 school year on
September 4 Catholic schools are integrated
April 16 – excommunicates Jackson Ricau, Mrs.
B.J. Gaillot, and Leander Perez
1964 Dies on November 8
1961-1964 Coadjutor Archbishop
John Cody

18. Archbishop Rummel and Jesuit
• Chapel of the North American Martyrs
• Hall of Honors

19. Why so long?
•Methodological approach and measured response
•Emphasis on teaching, rather than commanding
•Aversion to jeopardizing his goal of desegregation
•Opposition of parish school boards
•Holy Name of Jesus Dads’ Club – Oct. 24, 1955
•Opposition of state legislature
•Request of city authorities to move slowly?
•Increasing age and illness

20. New Orleans - 1950s
• 1956 – federal judge J. Skelly Wright orders Orleans
Parish School Board to design a plan for desegregation of
N.O. public schools
• 1956-1960 – attempts to overturn and circumvent ruling

23. Jackson Ricau Leander Perez
Mrs. B.J. Gaillot

24. “We will continue the fight
until the evil, Communist-inspired
forces of integration are resoundingly
and finally defeated.”
Jackson Ricau

25. “God demands segregation.”
Mrs. B.J. Gaillot

26. “Cut off their water.
Quit giving them money
to feed their fat bellies.”
Leander Perez

27. Ruby Bridges 1960
The Trouble We All Live With
by Norman Rockwell

28. The Integration of
Jesuit High School

29. November 14,1955

30. Fr. Claude Stallworth
principal
Fr. Harry Crane
president

31. Parents Club Officers 1953

32. the lead-up
November 14,1955
• At a JHS Parents’ Club meeting, member
Charles A. Bourgeois proposes a resolution
stating that Jesuit would not integrate.
• No action is taken.
• The resolution states that there is no need to
integrate since adequate facilities are available for
both races.
• The resolution further states that integration
would lower the school’s academic standards.

33. the lead-up
January 10, 1956
• Before the Parents’ Club Meeting, Bourgeois mails
the resolution to the club’s 900 members.
• The letter encourages a threat to withdraw pledges
from the capital campaign to finance the new gym.

34. January 10, 1956
• At the meeting principal Fr. Claude Stallworth
does not allow the resolution to be introduced,
saying that it violates the club’s constitution.
• He further states that he “could not allow any
organization connected with JHS to take
action which could be construed as approving a
movement which is un-Christian, un-
Catholic, undemocratic, un-American, and
ungentlemanly.”
• A certain number of members, including non-
JHS parents, walk out of the meeting.

35. National attention
Time – January 23, 1956

36. “Dear Parents,
“I thought you would like to know the
truth . . .”
“ We have no definite plans for
integration in the future.”
Fr. Claude Stallworth, S.J.
April 20, 1956
Submitted by Wayne Weilbaecher ’57
“This letter went out to the parents,
the funding continued, and the gym was built.”

37. Commission on Human Rights
SERINCO
JHS Sodality

38. CHR – Commission on Human Rights
•Advocated for elimination of segregation in the archdiocese
•Attended Mass monthly as an integrated group
•Advocated for Catholic hospital admission based on
need, not race
•Advocated for elimination of dual church organizations such as
Holy Name Society and the St. Vincent DePaul Society
•C. Ellis Henican ’22 (1960 Alumnus of Year)

39. 1948 – SERINCO founded
• Southeastern Regional Interracial Commission
• Catholic college students
• Catholic Interracial Sundays
1949 1955

40. 1953 SERINCO -Talent Show for High School Students
• promote better race relations
• idea came from JHS
• two MCs, one from Xavier,
one from Loyola
• large turnout in JHS auditorium

41. The Sodality
The Blue Jay Magazine Staff

42. JHS Sodality
and Union Sodality

43. 1962 April
Sodality Speakers
1960 November
Numa Rousseve, Sr.

44. discussion with Xavier Prep
1962 – hosting St. Aug Sodality delegates

45. Sodality Minutes
“Fr. Villaverde said that the entire world is looking
on New Orleans as a place where devoted and
loving mothers want nothing less than the blood
and flesh of a 6 year-old child.”
November 20, 1960
1961 Sodality

46. “Mr. Offerman spoke on the recently formed C atholic
Council on Human Relations. He went into the race situation
in a little more detail. He explained the standpoint of the
Catholic Church on this matter and told the Sodalists how
To meet with some of the problems that face them now.”
July 18, 1961
“Satterlee, Johnson, LeBlanc, and Hanemann each
commented on integration and the problems in the school.”
September 10, 1962
“The prefect then said that St. Augustine’s Sodality
had challenged the Jesuit Sodality to a basketball game.”
February 3, 1963

47. December 23, 1935 – “Race Problem Challenges Principles
Taught by Catholic Church”
September 11, 1947 – “Apostle of the Negroes”
February 27, 1948 – “Sodalists Discuss Interracial Justice”

48. The Blue Jay Student Magazine
November 1958
November 1957

49. October 1958
April 1960

50. April 1959

51. The Blue Jay, January 1961
The Nonconformity Issue

52. the lead-up
May 1962
September 1962

53. Jacques Michell ’61
“Racial Segregation Is Non Conformity”
January 1961

55. The Archdiocese of New Orleans Desegregates
September 4, 1962

56. 200 students in 32 schools

57. September 4, 1962
“The school is officially integrated, opening with
8 colored students. No trouble and none
anticipated.”
Daily History of Jesuit High School
compiled by John C. Paquette ’25

59. 1962-1963
juniors
Thomas Fornerette ’64 Wesley Watkins ’64

60. sophomores
Leon Adams ’65 (D) James Berryhill

61. freshmen
Staffras Broussard Lawrence Haydel ’66
Anthony Rachal Willis Rey

62. 1962 Yearbook

63. “the transition passed without major public turmoil . . .” but . . .
• there were picketers outside the school
• some parents removed their sons from Jesuit
• the African American students were isolated and ignored
by both classmates and teachers
• Larry Haydel ’66: “How can a white guy dislike me when
he doesn’t even know me personally?”
• Paul Adams ’67: “Sometimes we had bananas thrown at us,
we were spat on, and there was graffiti written on the
bathroom walls.”

64. • Evidently the school had no plan for support
and guidance
• Paul Adams ’67: “If teachers or students would
have invited us to join activities, we would
have been able to show the community who
we really were.”
“We were doing something to help
those coming behind us.”
Paul Adams ’67

65. Missed Opportunity
•one of the largest parochial school districts in
the country
•largest number of African American
Catholics in the U.S.
•Half of all African American Catholics in
South live in New Orleans

66. The Movement Continues
1965 Jesuit vs. St. Aug
“Team of the Century”

67. 1999 Passing Glory

68. my story – 1963 September
House on Elysian Fields Ave.
Sts. Peter & Paul

69. my story – 1964 November
Mat Grau Marc Boutte
a drugstore in Shreveport

70. First Phil & First Sodalist – Thomas Fornerette ’64

71. First member of the
basketball & football teams –
Rodney Tureaud (’70)

72. First Track Team Member – Richard Davis ’67

73. First National Merit Semifinalists –
Sterling Cincore ’74

75. Manny Armour ’13
First State Champion Wrestler

76. Marc Morial ’76
Mayor 1994-2002
President National Urban League

77. Ronald Mason ’70 Marlin Gusman ’73
President, Southern University Criminal Sheriff, Orleans Parish

78. Edgar “Dooky” Chase ’67
Civic Leader
2012 Alumnus of the Year

79. Maj. Brandon Gregoire ’91
Military Leader – Advisor to Congress

80. Jeremy Broussard ’95
Attorney – Advisor to
U.S. Secretary of Defense

81. Anthony Williams ’92
Attorney
JHS President’s Advisory C ouncil
Member

82. Lambert Boissere ’83
Chris Cola ’93
CPA – Houston Chapter Leader
Public Service Commissioner

83. Darryl Derbigny ’69 Malachi Hull ’92
Judge N.O. Taxicab Bureau Director

84. Michael Smith ’88 Glynn Cyprien ’85
Asst. Coach University of Arkansas Asst. Basketball Coach -Arkansas

85. Chris Markey ’04
U.C.L.A. Running Back
2012 Legend of the Game

86. Corey Hilliard ’03
Detroit Lions

87. Dr. Glenn Morgan ’79 Darren Mire ’86
Director of Assessment Evaluation
Orleans Parish

88. Edgar “Dook” Chase IV ’00
Chef

89. Ian Neville ’00
Musician

90. Alumni
Class of 1985
Houston Jays

91. Blue Jays of1987

92. Blue Jays of 2013

93. A. M. D. G.