I cannot recommend this book highly enough to any American Catholic. While I think the books my children have read do a relatively good job of talking about some of the hard truths of our history, none of them explore the history of our faith in America from the point of view of black Catholics like this one does.
This book is a treasure trove of amazing research. I imagine Cyprian Davis spent years reading letters, journals, newspaper articles, baptismal records, and other primary sources. He also conducted many interviews. The breadth and depth of this work is astounding, as is his humility. He reminds the reader regularly that more research is necessary.
The book was first published in 1990. I'm sure there have been great strides in scholarship at times and places, but I'm not sure there's been another book attempting to pull it all together in the way that this author does.
Reading the book, I found a recurring cycle of Catholics, even some in authority, speaking out the truth of the Gospel and how blacks, slave and free, should be incorporated as full members of the Church, but Catholics in practice deluded themselves into serving their own interests. As Fr. Cyprian points out, the black Catholics also spoke eloquently and repeatedly on their own behalf:
For the first time [in 1853] but not for the last, black lay Catholics had spoken out for themselves expressing both loyalty and love for the church and anger and dismay at the racist practices of those within the church...Still, the pattern of appeal to Rome regarding the plight of black Catholics, both on the part of blacks themselves and on the part of those who labored among them, will eventually result in a Roman response that will change the American church decisively. (page 97)
You may look at the text of this book and the number of pages in dismay, anticipating a dry academic treatise. Do not fear. Fr. Cyprian writes clearly but engagingly. I marveled at how eager I was to keep reading and how quickly the pages turned.
I don't intend to assign this book to my high schoolers, simply because it is rather long, and the history curriculum is already pretty dense, but I will keep it prominently on our shelves and encourage them to read it. I'm making a list of books to gift my seminarian son if he becomes a priest (to begin building his library), and this is the first book on the list.
I received nothing in exchange for this post. Links to Amazon and Bookshop are affiliate links. I purchased a copy of this book.
