CHARTERHOUSE CHRONICLE

BY LORET'TA M. BUTLER
Black and Catholic: strangers at a turning point in history
9 TH APRIL, 1966: "Yesterday was my birthday and, being Good Friday, there was no mail delivery. The consequence is that I have got all my birthday mail today and among it came your very welcome letter of March 23rd. It is certainly the one that I shall prize above all others..."
With these words, Douglas Hyde [then Deputy Editor of the Catholic Herald] helped me to realise that one small gesture I made in 1957 was far more meaningful that I could have ever imagined.
This encounter began when I received a message from the Catholic Herald asking permission to reprint an article I had written in the Catholic Interracialist, entitled "Sidewalk Reporter Sees DC Schools Open in Calm and Storm".
The article recounted events resulting from the American Supreme Court decision of 17 May 1954, Brown vs. Board of Education. This momentous decision declared school segregation unconstitutional.
As a recently retired elementary school teacher in Washington DC and a staff member of the Friendship House movement, I had a front row seat on the events occurring in the area of the school located across the street from our St Peter Claver Centre. I could see, hear and sense the tension as the school began the process of racial integration.
The article detailed the actions and reactions of the pupils, teachers, principal and neighbours in the first crucial weeks of transition.
The role of patrol boys, policemen, community organisations and community agitators was also documented.
In August of 1955, I left Friendship House to become principal of St Philip's, a small Catholic elementary school in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The next time the name Douglas Hyde became part of my consciousness was in New Orleans in 1957. Somehow, I found out that Mr Hyde was to be the speaker at a Catholic-sponsored forum organised by Fr John Twomey of Loyola University in New Orleans.
The meeting was to be held at a downtown hotel. The topic of the address was "Catholicism and Communism". Although I was painfully aware of segregation in all public facilities, I naively hoped that because of Catholic sponsorship of the meeting, I could attend. Most of all, I wanted to meet or at least hear Mr Hyde's address.
I decided to call the priest at Loyola University and explain why I wanted to attend the lecture. I'm not sure of his exact words, but the message was clear that Negroes could not attend because Negroes were not considered a part of the public!
Frustrated at his rebuff, I asked one of my faculty members to call Fr Twomey. She received the same answer. So, thinking: "three times and I'm out", I went over to the rectory, told our pastor, Fr Joseph Murphy, what had occurred.
He received the same negative response. Extremely frustrated, I went home and told my landlady all about the day's events. She said, "Send him a telegram and ask that it be delivered at the hotel near the time of the lecture." I scribbled my remarks on an old envelope, then called in the telegram, thinking, "That's that! At least I tried."
In 1960, after five years as principal of St Philip's School, I returned to Washington DC to pursue my doctoral degree at Catholic University of America. I had promised Archbishop Rummel of New Orleans that I would return to the city and teach at Xavier University of Louisiana. Archbishop Rummel had awarded me a full scholarship.
I returned to Xavier University in 1963. In the school year 1966-67, the faculty held a year-long ideas programme with the theme: "Catholicism and Communism."
Immediately, I thought of Douglas Hyde and the lecture on that very topic that I had been so anxious about in 1957. After relating the incident of 10 years before to my colleagues, they agreed that if I could locate Mr Hyde, they would invite him to present the culminating lecture for the Ideas Programme.
EGAN THE search, having
no idea what would result, and checked out various Catholic lay organisations in Chicago. Fortunately, one of them provided me with Douglas Hyde's address in England. Elated, I wrote and received a prompt response with just the right words that, now 30 years later, continue to inspire me.
He responded favourably to our invitation: "I would love to have you [Loretta Butler] act as chairman of my next public lecture in your city..."
He also confirmed that he had received my 1957 telegram and explained how he reacted to it: "Of course I received the telegram you sent to the Roosevelt Hotel, New Orleans, years ago. It was passed to me as I was just about to go up onto the platform... For a moment I considered staging a one-man demonstration by refusing to give my lecture in what I now knew was a segregated meeting.
Instead, I decided that I should not throw away the opportunity provided by the presence of a large audience. So I talked to them first of communism and got them on my side. Then I tried to show them that communism grows out of injustices, particularly racial and social injustices. And then I used your telegram to reinforce my arguments..."
Mr Hyde also approached the manager of the Roosevelt Hotel about the policy of segregation and also met the organiser of the Loyola University Forum, Fr Twomey.
Another part of the letter of 1966 from Mr Hyde for which I will ever be grateful is: "After that first lecture in the Roosevelt, I returned to England and I wrote about your telegram in my column in the Catholic Herald.
"And I have used it on many occasions since then in order to underline the tragic fact that segregation is to be found within our own ranks and to bring this point home in the most poignant, personal way I know. I have been grateful to you for years for that telegram and I have tried to show my gratitude by using it just as effectively as I could."
It was with a shared sense of gratitude that we finally met. I could, at last, put a face with a name. Our meeting took place on 1 1 April 1967. Thinking back, I can't recall how he looked. It had been 13 years since I first
heard his name. It was anticlimatic finally to meet the actual person.
We talked and tried to catch up with what had brought us to this time and place. I enjoyed his morning lecture on "Positive Answers to Communism". Then we chatted over lunch and pursued more conversation. That evening, as he had asked, I introduced him to the audience comprising our Xavier University community. He addressed the topic of "Christian-Communist Dialogue".
This was the last time that we had any communication. I never heard from him again.
I taught at Xavier University until 1971, then at Roosevelt University in Chicago until retirement in 1980. Since then I have been immersed in researching African American Catholic history.
Now, in 1997, as I write my memoirs, the chronicle of the years since the 1950s must include Douglas Hyde. I have read this 1966 letter from him many times. As I began this article with the words of Douglas Hyde, it seems appropriate to close with the words in his last paragraph.
They sum it up for both of us:
"I cannot tell you how glad I am that you wrote to me. I wish you had done so years ago and we might already have met.
God bless you, Yours sincerely, (signed) Douglas Hyde."