Pursuing and Impeding: Civil Rights and the Redemptorist Mission in Orangeburg, South Carolina, 1930-1955

The small Catholic community in Orangeburg, South Carolina, was racially divided when Redemptorist priests arrived from the North in 1930. Initially, their ministry seemed to support legalized segregation, though over time, through the leadership of the Black Catholic community, the Redemptorists increasingly and more publicly supported civil rights. Pro-segregationist White Catholics lashed out at the priests who were active in civil rights work and demanded that they be removed, but Redemptorist leadership and the Charleston bishop backed the activist priests. This conflict prompted ongoing reflection for the Redemptorists about how they had failed to properly form the consciences of their pro-segregationist parishioners and how they might heal divisions within the community.