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Cry for Justice
Daniel Rudd and His Life in Black Catholicism, Journalism,
and Activism, 1854–1933
Gary B. Agee
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Gutsy
black Catholic journalist found hero for racial justice in
Minnesota bishop
Life
of trailblazing black Catholic journalist profiled in new
book
Book
sheds light on black Catholic Arkansan Daniel Rudd
"Expands our
understanding of the role black Catholics played in the American
civil rights movement and the promotion of racial justice
in our country."
—R. Bentley Anderson in American Catholic Studies
“In
this highly original book, Gary Agee unveils the complex challenges
and opportunities for the black religious press in its quest
for racial justice during the era of Jim Crow. He provides
an extraordinarily detailed view of the American Catholic
Tribune and its editor, Daniel A. Rudd. Specialists and
general readers will judge it a valuable contribution to the
field of African American religious history.”
—John David Smith, Charles H. Stone Distinguished Professor
of American History, University of North Carolina at Charlotte,
and co-author of Seeing the New South: Race and Place
in the Photographs of Ulrich B. Phillips
“An
important contribution to the scholarship on black journalism,
black Catholicism, and black leadership.”
—Reginald Hildebrand, professor of African and Afro-American
studies at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and author
of The Times Were Strange and Stirring: Methodist Preachers
and the Crisis of Emancipation
“Well
written and researched, this engaging study of African American
Catholic Daniel Rudd deserves to be read not only by historians
of American religion but by those who seek a better understanding
of the demands of racial and social justice. Dr. Agee presents
a convincing argument that the ‘Fatherhood of God and
the Brotherhood of Man’ was a rallying cry that far
predates our modern civil rights movement.”
—Rev. David Endres, professor of church history and
historical theology, Athenaeum of Ohio / Mt. St. Mary’s
Seminary of the West
Daniel
A. Rudd, born a slave in Bardstown, Kentucky, grew up to achieve
much in the years following the Civil War. His Catholic faith,
passion for
activism, and talent for writing led him to increasingly influential
positions
in many places. One of his important early accomplishments
was
the publication of the American Catholic Tribune,
which Rudd referred to
as “the only Catholic journal owned and published by
colored men.” At its
zenith, the Tribune, run out of Detroit and Cincinnati,
where Rudd lived,
had ten thousand subscribers, making it one of the most successful
black
newspapers in the country. Rudd was also active in the leadership
of the
Afro-American Press Association, and he was a founding member
of the
Catholic Press Association.
By 1889,
Rudd was one of the nation’s best-known black Catholics.
His
work was endorsed by a number of high-ranking church officials
in
Europe as well as in the United States, and he was one of
the founders
of the Lay Catholic Congress movement. Later, his travels
took him to
Bolivar County, Mississippi, and eventually on to Forrest
City, Arkansas,
where he worked for the well-known black farmer and businessperson,
Scott Bond, and eventually co-wrote Bond’s biography.
Gary
B. Agee is adjunct professor of church history
at Anderson School of
Theology, Anderson University.
December
6 x 9, 256 pages
index
$39.95 (s) cloth
ISBN 978-1-55728-975-9
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