Abstract:
This project explores the heretofore-untold experiences of, and roles undertaken by elementary-aged African American students in desegregating Catholic schools in New Orleans. In so doing, these, the youngest students, were agents in pushing the institution in a different direction, away from separation and exclusion, and toward an undivided, universal Church, the very meaning of the word “catholic.” This work explains what happened after the media and protestors left, and focuses on how the students navigated the space to inaugurate a new era of equality. Bringing these stories into view transforms the way young students are seen in the historical story of the civil rights movement generally and Catholic school desegregation specifically. This research centers the desegregation actions and experiences of young African American Catholic school students in the transformation from segregated to integrated.
