Rosemary Drown Archdiocese of New Orleans and School Integration Collection

Rosemary Drown was an employee of the New Orleans Catholic Bookshop for over 40 years. The Drown Collection was donated by Janet Mary Riley, women’s rights advocate and the first female law professor in New Orleans, who had this to say about Ms. Drown: “Collected by late Rosemary Drown, employee of Catholic Bookstore, integrationist, friend of Ms. Riley.” Included is a 1962 letter from the Catholic Council on Human Relations of the Archdiocese of New Orleans to Ms. Drown regarding her contribution “to the worthy cause of helping a Catholic Negro family keep their child in a Catholic school.” Archbishop Joseph Francis Rummel, in the 1953 Pastoral Letter “Blessed Are the Peacemakers” called for an end to segregation within the New Orleans Archdiocese. Resistance and opposition to the idea of integration by some Catholics were strong and increased after the Supreme Court’s ruling in the 1954 landmark case Brown v. Board of Education found the segregation of public school students unconstitutional. Soon after, two major anti-integration organizations, the Association of Catholic Laymen and the White Citizen’s Council of Greater New Orleans were established. With the support of Orleans Parish School Board member Emile Wagner, these groups sought directly to counter Archbishop Rummel’s call for integration. In 1956, Archbishop Rummel wrote another Pastoral Letter, “The Morality of Racial Segregation” which clearly and plainly identified segregation as “morally wrong.” For nearly a decade, anti-integration organizations continuously challenged Archbishop Rummel, even after Catholic School segregation officially ended at the beginning of the 1962-1963 school year.

Note written by Horn, Christine P.