High School Students, the Catholic Church, and the Struggle for Black Inclusion and Citizenship in Rock Hill, South Carolina
High School Students, the Catholic Church, and the Struggle for Black Inclusion and Citizenship in Rock Hill, South Carolina
In 1970, the United States’ Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered South Carolina school districts to end their dual public education systems. Rock Hill, South Carolina, a community thirty miles south of Charlotte, North Carolina, responded by closing down the all-black schools in the district and hurriedly rezoning all students into previously all-white schools. Yet, once in their new schools, black students faced continued discrimination and received inferior educational opportunities. In conjunction with the Rock Hill Catholic Church Oratory, black students responded by challenging the lasting remnants of Jim Crow, demanding adequate school facilities, fair discipline policies, qualified teachers, and advanced curriculums. This chapter analyzes the ways in which the Oratory, a local Catholic mission, became a bedrock for civil rights activism in this predominantly Protestant community. The story demonstrates a sustained effort by African American youth, aided by the Catholic Church, to overcome the legacy of racial discrimination in the American South in the years following the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and federally enforced school desegregation.
Keywords: school desegregation, student protest, Oratory, Catholic Church activism, desegregation
University Press of Mississippi requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
