Jesuits in the United States: Slavery and Jim Crow

Jesuits participated in the egregious institution of slavery in America. Through their involuntary labor, slaves “helped establish, expand, and sustain Jesuit missionary efforts and educational institutions” in America (Slavery, History, Memory, and Reconciliation). For example, Georgetown University owes its continued existence and prestige to the now infamous 1838 sale of 272 enslaved people. In addition, St. Stanislaus Seminary, the site of Fr. John Markoe’s spiritual formation, was the product of slave labor. Jesuit slaveholding was so  pervasive that it is a legacy “shared by all Jesuits and Jesuit institutions” (Slavery, History, Memory, and Reconciliation). 

As missionaries, Jesuits prioritized the eventual eternal salvation of enslaved people over their worldly experiences of injustice (Schmidt and Critchley-Menor, 2020). Jesuits dutifully evangelized but, like most Catholic missionaries of the era, they most often stressed the conversion aspect of missionary work and neglected their duty to demonstrate Catholic values through their actions. Stripped of their autonomy, slaves were manipulated and abused by the very people who had assumed ministry of their spiritual wellbeing.

The Jesuit attitude toward Black Catholics “as objects of ministry rather than agents of their own faith” proved resolute against the forces of emancipation and Reconstruction (Schmidt and Critchley-Menor, 2020). This practice of objectification thrived in the Jim Crow era. Jesuit schools exclusively educated white students. Administrators feared the financial repercussions of integration and opted to prioritize wealthy donors’ happiness over the social advancement of potential Black students. By prohibiting Black students, they fortified both legislated and de facto segregation. Though their discriminatory practices were never codified, American Jesuits excluded Black men from the order as well. Black candidates were deemed unfit for religious life as they would not prove “useful” to the order. This evaluation was rooted in the notion that Black priests could not have any authority over white Catholics. (Schmidt and Critchley-Menor, 2020). Such prejudice was so ubiquitous among American Jesuits that it even permeated the rare efforts to further racial equality.