WALKING AMONG ALL THE PEOPLE: THE STRUGGLES …az480170.vo.msecnd.net/.../jaah-ms-chism-and-walton-pdf.pdf · THE STRUGGLES OF BONIFACE HARDIN AS PRIEST, SOCIALACTIVIST, AND FOUNDER

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WALKING AMONG ALL THE PEOPLE: THE STRUGGLES OF BONIFACE HARDIN

AS PRIEST, SOCIAL ACTIVIST, ANDFOUNDER OF MARTIN UNIVERSITY

Nancy Van Note Chism and Andrea Walton

The spirit of a true follower and imitator of Christ is to forgive and hope, and this I think I have.I forgive my Church for the deeds perpetrated against my people by its bishops, priests, and sis-ters, and hope that someday it will be converted to Christ and His love.

—Father Boniface Hardin1

On Easter Sunday, April 1969, at Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral inIndianapolis, the serenity of Easter service, offered by his holiness ArchbishopPaul C. Schulte, was broken as a group of worshippers, numbering over one hun-dred strong, who stood up, turned their backs, and walked out in protest. A leaderamong the protesters, local attorney Joseph Smith, told reporters that this group—including members of the clergy and laity—was registering its opposition to the“rigid and demoralizing attitude” the archbishop had displayed toward “priestswho have practiced social justice and social action.” Specifically, discontent andanger had been stirred by rising pressures within the church to remove FatherBoniface Hardin from his duties at their local parish, Holy Angels, inIndianapolis’s predominantly black Westside community. Staging the walkout onEaster, the most holy of days, the group also “refused to give money to the annu-al collection for the seminaries.” Smith explained, “We feel that it is wrong to giveto this collection since priests in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis are not allowedto really preach the word of Christ. Instead of giving money, we offered letters ofdiscontent and concern.”2

For many members of Holy Angels Parish, Father Hardin was the first blackpriest they had encountered. His arrival at the parish in 1965 opened a new chap-ter in the Catholic Church’s relationship to the city of Indianapolis and to the localAfrican American community. In him, parishioners saw an advocate, a spiritualleader, and a symbol of the possibility of change. The walkout, which made head-lines in the Indianapolis Recorder and was reported in the New York Times, sig-naled solidarity among parishioners and support for Father Hardin’s outspokenopposition to a pattern of police brutality in the city and a proposed interstate high-

Nancy Van Note Chism is Professor Emerita of Higher Education and Student Affairs, Indiana University; andAndrea Walton is Associate Professor of Education, Indiana University.

Boniface Hardin As Priest, Social Activist, and Founder of Martin University 289

way project that would cut through the predominantly black residential area sur-rounding Holy Angels.3 Church leaders, themselves under pressure from govern-ment officials, had little patience for Father Hardin’s vocal criticism of local pol-itics. They urged him to refrain from activism, which pitted him against city offi-cials, and to focus instead on the spiritual needs of his congregants.4 But, toHardin’s mind, being pious and political were not at odds. How could he, a manof faith, stay quiet in the face of such injustices and challenges?

In retrospect, the Easter Sunday walkout ushered in a decisive moment in FatherHardin’s career as an outspoken and highly visible religious leader and educator inIndianapolis. In the months leading up to the incident he had grappled with findinginnovative and effective ways as a spiritual leader to help meet the overwhelmingneeds of Indianapolis’s underserved African American community. But even as hisCatholicism and love of the Church anchored his life, deepened his empathy andcompassion for others, and steeled his commitment to social justice, he was troubledby the racial prejudice and discrimination he confronted within the Church. As theeffort of Church officials to silence him made painfully evident, Father Hardin’srelationship to his Church, like that of many Black Catholics in the 1960s, was con-flicted.5

This biographical portrait draws upon archival records and interviews, alongwith relevant historical sources, to weave a portrait of Boniface Hardin’s life andlegacy, capturing both his inner feelings and public struggles as one of the coun-try’s few African American Catholic priests who was outspoken in his criticismand purposeful in his resistance to the power of a social structure and a churchtainted by racism. His charismatic personality, deep faith, and tenacity wereinstrumental in breathing life into a number of institutions and programs for thecity’s underserved populations, especially the local African American community,with the most enduring of these enterprises being what is today Martin University,Indiana’s only historically black institution of higher education.6

In telling the story of Boniface’s life, the essay inevitably points to the accom-plishments and milestones in Father Hardin’s service to parishioners and to thecity of Indianapolis, but the focus here is less on institutional history than on thehuman dimension of his compelling story; namely, Father Hardin’s spiritual jour-ney and ability to find inspiration in faith, and especially in Jesus’s example, tocounter the anguish and anger of confronting racism, even in the Church he loved.

The account offered here is of great significance to the history of Indianapolis,but it is not an isolated story. The struggle to find strength in faith and racial her-itage and to serve and take action in the name of justice, even in the face of anoppressive religious culture or church hierarchy is illuminated in the lives of othermen and women of faith who, like Father Hardin, confronted racism in variousquarters, and yet left their mark on their parishes and communities. It is through

290 The Journal of African American History

such biographies that we recover an aspect of the history of U.S. Catholicism thatmerits closer study, and come to understand more fully the history of what it hasmeant to be African American and Catholic in the United States.7

Because he was not a prolific writer and the archival record and personal cor-respondence he left behind are limited in scope and size and, unfortunately forbiographers, silent in some details, Father Hardin’s story has been recovered main-ly through an oral interview he gave in 1983 and subsequent interviews withfriends and colleagues.8 These interviews inevitably reflect the vagaries of mem-ory—a lack of precision in recalling dates and names, for instance—but they res-onate with themes on which historians of the African American experience haveelaborated. They evoke a consistent, poignant image of the man and his times: thefaith that sustained him through difficult times, and the ideals and principles thatanimated his thinking about education, equality, and the social realities of a racial-ly divided America—especially the patterns of segregation and injustice in citieslike Indianapolis—that called him to action.

For many of Father Hardin’s generation of African American Catholics, theseconflicting feelings came to a head and were given voice in the 1960s, a decade whenthe civil rights, cultural nationalist, and Black Power movements raised racial con-sciousness and pride, spurred a willingness to confront bigotry within the Church, andinspired many to use the power of faith to battle prejudice in the larger society.9 A stu-dent of history, Father Hardin was well aware that the Catholic Church had upheldthe institution of slavery and, later, Jim Crow, but he also knew the role that priestsand nuns had and were playing in the Civil Rights Movement and that faith couldwithstand prejudice and be the fulcrum of social change. The 1969 Easter Sundaywalkout and other incidents reflected the inherent tensions in Father Hardin’s person-al journey as a Black Catholic, frustrations that were experienced by many otherAfrican Americans, but also a sense of the power of organized protest and resistanceas well as the empowerment achieved in designing culturally-relevant programs,services, and institutions. Though he railed against racism wherever he found it,including in his beloved Church, he devoted his energies toward reconciliation andtoward building programs and institutions to serve the needs of his community.“What role does religion play in our life?” Father Hardin was once asked. “It’s partof me. I’m Boniface, priest, monk, healer, I’m a healer.”10

THE STRUGGLE TO BELONG

In Indianapolis in the 1960s Father Hardin served as a priest and communityleader, challenged the politics of overt and covert racism, and found strength in hisblackness and Catholic faith. However, the story of his early education andembrace of religious faith in a world and church flawed by racism sheds insight


into this journey.Born in the only hospital that would accept African American patients at the time,

Randolph Dwight Hardin was born on 18 November 1933 in Louisville, Kentucky,known as the “‘middle ground between North and South,’ having a ‘mélange ofsouthern and northern attitudes’” on race relations.11 He was the second son ofElizabeth Hansbro Hardin and Albert Augustine Hardin, who had lost their first sonshortly after his birth. Young Randy, as he came to be called, was named after notedcivil and labor rights leader A. Philip Randolph, who had gained national prominencein the 1920s and 1930s for organizing the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.Randolph was a friend of Randy’s maternal grandfather, a porter named ArthurHansbro. Although Randy’s recollections of his grandfather focused more on hissnappy uniform and pride in being a porter, it is clear that within the family, there wasan admiration for the fight for social justice that A. P. Randolph personified.12

Education, religion, and hard work were valued in the Hardin household.Randy’s parents were well-educated for the time, having both completed teacherpreparation degrees in Frankfurt at Kentucky Industrial College for ColoredPersons (later Kentucky State University).13 His mother taught in a one-room, all-black school in rural New Haven, Kentucky, while his father, finding that teach-ing did not pay enough to support a family, operated a small grocery store in theirhome and also worked as a waiter, as his father had done, at the famous TalbottTavern in Bardstown, Kentucky, where wages were better.14

Bardstown was the early seat of the first Catholic diocese west of theAppalachian Mountains, populated by settlers from the Baltimore area whobrought their faith with them. The white Catholic slaveholders were urged by theChurch to bring their enslaved workers into the Catholic faith even though theChurch upheld slavery and racial segregation. Aspiring nuns in Kentucky wereasked to bring enslaved workers with them as a sort of dowry and enslaved labor-ers were important in the building of St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Bardstown.15

Randy’s father, Albert Hardin, was a descendent of one of the enslaved workerswho built the cathedral and was brought up in the Catholic Church. His wife,Elizabeth, was originally a Baptist, but agreed with the requirement that they bringup their children as Catholics, and she eventually converted as well. As an altar boy,Randy felt a great affinity for the Church, learned early on how to recite the full Latinmass, and he even imitated the religious rituals in his play. His younger brother, Bill,recalled a time when the Hardin parents told the children they were not to accompa-ny them to church one Sunday because of restrictions caused by the polio epidemic.Elated, Bill thought they would play for the hour, but Randy insisted on “sayingMass” at home.16

The Church was somewhat less enthusiastic in welcoming Randy. At thecathedral, he was required to sit in the “Amen corner,” an area in the back of the


church assigned to African Americans. When he made his first Holy Communion,he had to wait until all the white children received theirs, and then he was allowedto do so. He later recalled that he accepted these practices without question andmaintained his reverence for the Church.17

Elizabeth Hansbro Hardin (mother) and Albert A. Hardin (father) with Randy Hardin as altar boy on the day of his mother’s first Holy Communion, 1945.

Randy was 11. Priest in background is Father Simon Griesam of St. Peter Claver Church inLouisville, KY. From Hardin Family Archives, used with permission.

On at least one occasion, however, young Randy Hardin did recall that hisfamily questioned the Church’s racist practices. When the Archdiocese ofLouisville made plans for the construction of a separate church for BlackCatholics in Bardstown, Albert Hardin opposed the move, arguing that his ances-tors had built the cathedral and he rightfully had a place in it. He lost this argu-ment, and in 1943 the family began attending services at the new St. Monica’sChapel, housed in two rooms in the school by the same name that had been estab-lished for African American children who were no longer allowed to attend St.Joseph’s School.18

At the start of World War II, Albert Hardin was faced with military duty and,in lieu of enlisting, was given the option of working at Jeffersonville Boatworksin southern Indiana across the Kentucky border. The Hardin family relocated toLouisville, living in an all-black neighborhood, Smoketown. As Randy’s brotherBill Hardin described it, most neighborhoods in Louisville at the time had a small


“colored” section where those who worked for whites or their businesses couldlive and get to work more easily. In each church, there would be two or three pewsin the back labeled, “For Colored.” Bill wondered, “Why would a Church thinklike that? But that is how the Church thought. Because Christ had not movedthroughout his Church.”19

Randy Hardin attended school at St. Peter Claver Elementary School, staffedby Ursuline sisters. St. Peter Claver Church had been founded by MotherKatharine Drexel, known for her concern for the “Indian and Negro missions.”20

The Franciscan pastor, Father Simon Griesam, embraced his assignment; he culti-vated pride in the students by forming a drum and bugle corps and insisting thatwhen they marched in parades, the St. Peter Claver band march in the front ormiddle of the parade, not in the rear, as all-black bands had in the past.

Tall, serious Randy Hardin became a student leader and was commissioned forsuch important errands as pushing a cart to the white Catholic school to pick up usedbooks and supplies for the African American students at St. Peter Claver. Althoughthe critique in Lawrence Lucas’s Black Priest/White Church (1970), and Randy’sown brother Bill, testified to the way in which white nuns and priests tried to imposea white middle class culture on impressionable black students, Randy was studiousand eager to please.21 He garnered the admiration of his pastor, Father Griesam, andFather Michael Lally, the priest at his former church of St. Monica’s in Bardstown,who were delighted with Randy’s growing sense of vocation to the priesthood.

John Floersch, the Archbishop of Louisville, however, was not so supportive.The Church hierarchy interpreted Kentucky’s 1904 Day Law banning integratedschooling to apply to its seminaries as well as schools.22 Despite the sponsorshipby his local priests, Randy Hardin was denied entry to Louisville’s St. ThomasSeminary. Fathers Lally and Griesam tried to locate an alternate institution andsuggested St. Augustine’s Seminary in Bay-St. Louis, Mississippi, which had beenestablished in 1920 by the Society of Divine Word missionaries as the first semi-nary to welcome African American students. Founding Rector, Father MatthewChristmann, was a pioneer in calling upon the Catholic Church to welcome thetraining of African Americans for the priesthood. He pointed out, “It must be clearto everyone that it is surely a grave injustice to exclude a whole race from thepriesthood, principally because prejudice will greatly hamper them in their reli-gious activities, or a cordial cooperation with white priests may meet with greatobstacles. Such an injustice is bound to work havoc and bring down heavyvengeance upon him who becomes guilty of it.”23

Reluctant to have Randy go so far away at the young age of thirteen, AlbertHardin and Father Griesam approached the Archbishop to ask that Randy be allowedto attend high school and then seminary at St. Meinrad Archabbey in nearby Indiana.St. Meinrad Archabbey had been established in 1854 as a mission to the Americas


by Benedictine monks from a monastery in Switzerland, Einsiedein Abbey. Theycame to serve the spiritual and educational needs of the German-speaking popula-tion in southern Indiana and to open a seminary. They first established a high schooland in 1861 began undergraduate education.24 When Randy Hardin went to St.Meinrad to become a priest, he was first enrolled in the high school. He came at atime when St. Meinrad had just begun to accept African American students.Archabbot Ignatius Esser opened the doors of the monastery to all students, perhapsinspired by the strong integrationist stance of Joseph Ritter, then Archbishop of thediocese of Indianapolis. This openness was soon strengthened by the opportunity torecruit veterans with GI Bill educational benefits after World War II ended.25

“PICKIN’ COTTON ON THE WAY TO CHURCH”

Because Archbishop John Floersch refused to support the request of the Hardinfamily to sponsor Randy as a seminarian at St. Meinrad, the St. Peter Claver commu-nity, as well as friends and family of the Hardins, rallied with fundraisers and offersof services to send Randy Hardin to St. Meinrad. He was likely one of the only stu-dents attending on private, rather than Church funds. His cassocks were homemadeand his lodgings inferior to those of the other students, but he made no complaints.26

Since Randy Hardin was one of the first African American students at the highschool, the St. Meinrad environment was likely a challenging one. The three otherblack students who entered the high school with him failed to remain after theirfirst year. Minstrel shows were still being held and the seminary had yet to pro-duce one African American monk (this happened seven years later). Randy and theother seminarians were encouraged to be compliant and studious; he saw his fam-ily only at intervals. When he came home during summer vacations to earn hissupport for the next academic year, he worked on the farm of the Ursuline sisters,which might be the reference for his later planned (but never written) autobiogra-phy, “Pickin’ Cotton on the Way to Church.”27

Randy Hardin’s years at St. Meinrad were formative in shaping his religiousbeliefs, but were also a period when the social justice ideals and racial pride hewould embrace fully as a priest and educator during his Indianapolis years, andwhich church leaders would later frown upon, began to grow. St. Meinrad offeredthe seclusion needed for contemplative study and spiritual growth, but the youngseminarian was also becoming more racially aware and captivated by the civilrights protests and social justice politics outside the Archabbey’s gates. This inter-est was not, however, encouraged. If perhaps Hardin spoke more than others of hisinterest in the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other key figures in theearly civil rights struggles, he nevertheless knew the limits of the Archabbey’s cul-ture and expectations for seminarians.28


Hardin advanced through a classical curriculum in high school, two years of lib-eral arts, and two years of philosophy to attain his baccalaureate in philosophy. Bythis time, he had developed the intention to become a monk as well as a priest, like-ly due to his intellectual interests since most monks lived as scholars. This pathrequired an extra year to learn the Rule of St. Benedict, the founder of theBenedictine Order of monks. He then completed four years of seminary and wasordained in 1959, citing this occasion as “the most important day of my life.”29 The88th African American ordained into the priesthood in the United States, he hadbeen given the name “Boniface” (“doer of good”), a name he later came to cherishwhen viewed through his activist’s lens, since, according to legend, St. Boniface hadchopped down the pagan tree and converted Germany to Christianity.30

Father Boniface Hardin as a new monk at St. Meinrad Archabbey, between 1956 and 1959.

Indianapolis Recorder Collection, Indiana Historical Society.

Father Hardin’s first assigned post was to serve as assistant treasurer at St.Meinrad Archabbey. Although he accepted this assignment dutifully at the timeand studied business during the summer at Notre Dame University in Indiana toincrease his knowledge for the new position, he later expressed some resentmentat having been trained in classical languages and feeling “erudite,” only to be“doing something that a high school student could do.”31 Other monks were usu-ally sent for advanced degrees to prestigious schools in the United States orEurope. There is the possibility that Father Hardin’s placement could havestemmed from the racial biases of his superiors about his intelligence as an AfricanAmerican, but if he sensed this, Boniface did not overtly object to the placement.

As a young priest, Boniface Hardin traveled back home to the Louisville dio-


cese where he was proudly welcomed as the second African American priest tohave grown up in the diocese, but he also welcomed regular invitations to the cityof Indianapolis or other parts of Indiana to learn more about African Americans’civil rights struggles and to serve in a more active ministry.32 He later recalledserving as a visiting priest in one of Indiana’s “sundown towns” where AfricanAmerican men and women were not supposed to be on the streets after sunset. Hishosts whisked him away early to prevent problems.33 The contrast between theenthusiastic welcome he received at African American congregations and the cau-tionary treatment in other cities very likely surprised young Father Hardin. He wasstill struggling to define his position and role.34 The racial hostilities, economicdisparities, and unofficial segregation he witnessed first-hand in the 1960s reflect-ed deeper currents in the state’s history. Indiana had been a “free state,” but hadimplemented what one historian described as “the harshest Black code in theNorth.” The state had adopted civil rights laws in 1885, but “racial lines weresharply drawn.”35

Indianapolis and other cities had seen their racial demographics change as thepredominantly white state’s African American population shifted from rural tourban areas at the end of the 19th century. Later, the Great Migration broughtAfrican Americans from the South to Indiana’s cities seeking employment, espe-cially to the capital city of Indianapolis, only a hundred miles to the north of St.Meinrad Archabbey. These dynamics made Indianapolis distinctive. HistorianEmma Lou Thornbrough reported, “By 1900, the capital had the state’s largestconcentration of African Americans, and it continued to have the largest blackpopulation—as well as the largest white population—of any Indiana city through-out the century.”36 This influx of African Americans into the urban setting, coupledwith discrimination in housing, led to sizable numbers of African American fam-ilies concentrated in certain neighborhoods and gave rise to a network of civic andreligious organizations, and churches serving black Indianapolis. Most of thecity’s African Americans were members of Baptist or Methodist congregations.Far less numerous, but still visible in the city’s culture, were Presbyterians,Disciples of Christ, Episcopalians, and Roman Catholics.37

African American Catholics in Indianapolis in the early 1960s were served bythree main parishes, St. Rita’s on the Eastside, St. Bridget’s downtown, and HolyAngels on the Northwest side. St. Bridget’s had the longest legacy and had servedincreasing numbers of African American parishioners for many years. It operateda school for African American children called St. Ann’s. St. Rita’s had been estab-lished in 1919 as the first specifically African American parish. By the 1960s, itwas a thriving parish with a successful school.38 Its pastor, Father Bernard Strange,was an industrious entrepreneur who created the “Catholic pool,” a successful lot-tery operation, and held Bingo games and other fundraisers. Perhaps in large partdue to his fundraising abilities, Father Strange had a status within the archdiocese


that gave him independence and respect.39

Holy Angels was the last of the three churches to integrate. Shortly after WorldWar II, one of its pastors, Father James A. Coulter, was reported to have said,“Blacks won’t come to Holy Angels as long as I am pastor.”40 For this, he was sub-sequently removed when the statement was brought to the attention of Pope PiusXII. Holy Angels gradually became an all-black parish as white flight led towholesale turnover of the residents in the area. Joseph Smith, who was among theprotesters on Easter Sunday in 1969 and one of the first black students in HolyAngels School in the 1940s, recalled,

The white families who attended the school weren’t excited about accepting the black kids.There were troubles. You know, I remember distinctively getting in trouble for speaking to thewhite female classmates. This was like 3rd or 4th grade. Because the nuns who taught us at thattime were not really pleased with the archbishop saying “You gotta integrate.”41

As the churches were integrating, the parishioners were still served by whitepriests and nuns. In response to the need to educate black aspirants to the priest-hood, the monks of St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, established a newmonastery, St. Maur, in Kentucky, which later moved to Indianapolis to serveAfrican American seminarians. The white pastor of St. Rita’s, Father Strange, andthe black rector of St. Maur, Father Bernardine Patterson, were meeting withBlack Catholics who were insisting on getting more black priests in the archdio-cese. They frequently turned to Father Hardin, one of the few African Americanpriests in Indiana, to come to Indianapolis.

When Father Hardin traveled to Indianapolis, African American parishionerswere thrilled and, increasingly, he was called upon to assist with high masses atSt. Rita’s or to give vocation talks to young students in the Black Catholic elemen-tary schools. He embraced these opportunities to serve these congregations and bein active ministry in African American communities.42

FINDING A MINISTRY

Father Boniface Hardin grew more restless in his administrative post at theArchabbey as the Civil Rights Movement escalated. Being in the monastery, hesaid, “was really a kind of purging, or what do they call it, castration of my owncultural experience.” He felt the frustration of isolation on his part, and the denialon the part of the white power structure. “I had no one to talk to. Every time Iraised it, everyone’d tell me we had no problems at Meinrad in this area [race rela-tions].”43 Increasingly, he looked for opportunities to serve the African Americancommunity more directly. His opportunity came in 1965 when Father Albert


Ajamie, pastor of Holy Angels Parish (by then a majority black parish inIndianapolis), feeling the growing pressure for the presence of African Americanpriests to serve African American parishioners, asked that Father Hardin beassigned as his assistant pastor. This was the call that Father Hardin had been wait-ing for. He went, he said, because “I think the movement of Dr. King and all thatmade you more conscious of expending your energies where they could be appre-ciated. . . . I felt I had a personal need, my own self-worth. I really had a need atthe time to do something that I felt like was contributing to the benefit of the worldor my own people.”44

There was plenty of work to be done by someone of Father Hardin’s passionand commitment in Indianapolis when the call came in 1965. Indianapolis was thesite of lingering racial prejudice stemming from the former success of the Ku KluxKlan in Indiana politics and African Americans’ economic struggles for jobs andhousing.45 Local politicians and the police force, which consisted mostly of IrishCatholics, discriminated openly and were prone to use force when dealing withAfrican American citizens. During this period, the pages of the African Americannewspaper, the Indianapolis Recorder, captured the conflicts with city and stategovernment officials that embroiled African American civic groups, nonprofitorganizations, Black Power advocates, and churches that questioned the statusquo.46

When he first moved to Holy Angels, Father Hardin felt confused. At thirty-one, he had spent most of the previous eighteen years sequestered in a monastery.He was drawn to the example of Jesus Christ’s service to those around him.Recalling his transition, he observed, “Soon, food, clothing, liturgy, home visits,pot-holes and trash in the streets, became one, but I was only to be reminded bymy elders (priests who were older and always knew better) that the work of thepriest is not social work, but attending to the [spiritual] needs of the parish-ioners.”47

The conflict regarding the mission of a priest only deepened as FatherHardin’s growing racial awareness caused him to react to events in the worldaround him. When he saw young unarmed black men shot down by the police, heled protests against police brutality.48 When he witnessed poverty and unequalschooling, he joined others in demanding change. A particular incident atShortridge High School involving the expulsion of a student who had worn aBlack Power t-shirt engaged him as a protest leader and brought on charges ofinciting riot.49 In an extended effort, Father Hardin became involved in a move-ment to prevent a major highway from dividing the Holy Angels Parish neighbor-hood in two.50 He grew a large Afro, exchanged his Roman collar for a dashiki,and immersed himself in African American culture and the history of unjustoppression. Realizing that most African Americans belonged to one of several


Christian churches, he established an alliance with other religious leaders from aninterfaith action group, downplaying his Catholicism to establish trust in theAfrican American community. With his ministerial colleagues from several blackcongregations and rabbis and imans from other traditions, he led protests, deliv-ered impassioned speeches, wrote strong letters and newspaper editorials, andbecame a highly visible advocate. Father Hardin also planned a meeting on “theRole of the Church in Black Indianapolis,” for 27 September 1968, at which theissues of the African American community within the Catholic Church were dis-cussed. The opposition from the Catholic establishment and his alliance with otherreligious groups did not, however, deter Father Hardin from thinking of himself asa priest. He became more and more convinced that he needed to educate theCatholic Church to its true mission and work within its structures, even if on thefringes, to effect change.51

Father Hardin was joined in his social justice efforts by Sister Jane Schilling,the principal of Holy Angels School, who shared his vision and became a staunchally. Sister Jane was born in Minocqua, Minnesota, an isolated resort town, whereshe had no contact with African Americans.52 It was only after she had begun herservice with the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondolet in St. Louis that she devel-oped a passion for civil rights and social justice through her work in an AfricanAmerican school. She had been transferred to Holy Angels in 1965 and recalledthat when she met Father Hardin shortly after, they “clicked right away becausewe were about the same thing, freedom for the African American people.”53

The two led the school’s drum and bugle corps through the Holy Angelsneighborhood, urging residents to fight the planned highway, segregation in thepublic schools, police brutality, and other causes. They organized marches aroundthe downtown Monument Circle in Indianapolis and joined protests led by JesseJackson and Dr. Martin Luther King.54 Father Hardin wrote letters and held meet-ings with prominent local political figures, including the mayors of Indianapolis,John Barton and Richard Lugar. Very quickly, his name became associated withprotest and demands for change. Through all of this, Father Hardin was propelledby his belief that a true priest was to be at the center of social justice campaigns.

MAKING A WAY OUT OF NO WAY

The Catholic Church did not encourage this shift in the young monk’s styleand actions. Father Hardin was advised to avoid casting blame on the police andthe city leaders, to focus on the spiritual instead of the temporal, and to refrainfrom embarrassing his pastor and the Church. He recalled, “The feelings of mypeople during this period were ones of extreme anger and I identified completelywith this anger. Every time I tried to get an answer or support from my priestly


colleagues in this area, I was set aside as too young, not enough experience, andtrying to be like Fr. [James] Groppi [the Milwaukee priest and civil rights activistwho eventually left the priesthood]. The role of a Black priest in a Black commu-nity was hard, and not understood at all by my White priestly-colleagues.”55 Thediscouraging counsel he received from Church officials, coupled with his growingrecognition of the ways in which the Catholic Church had not only toleratedracism but embraced it in its actions, increased Father Hardin’s anger and resent-ment. Longtime Holy Angels parishioner Joseph Smith observed, “For Bonifaceto witness this interaction between good, down home, loving, living Catholicswho happened to be black, and to see that their religious faith and belief was beingchallenged just because of their ethnicity, it put him in a tizzy. And I think he wasconstantly learning more and more how racist and degrading the behaviors of thepowers that be were, and the Catholic Church because the Catholic schools weresegregated.”56

Despite the advice of Church officials, Father Hardin would not be stopped inhis social justice activism. In exasperation, a member of the police force (thoughtto be the chaplain) requested that the Archbishop of Indianapolis, Paul Schulte,remove Father Hardin from Holy Angels. The Archbishop, acting with the consentof the Archabbot of St. Meinrad, Gabriel Verkamp, Father Hardin’s Benedictinesuperior, complied with the police request and summoned Father Hardin to returnto the monastery. They did not realize the reaction that would result—the masswalkout in Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral by Black Catholics on Easter Sunday,1969. Additional opposition had come from the Black Catholic Clergy Caucus.The president, Rev. Donald M. Clark, sent the archbishop a letter from the caucusand declared,

The action taken against Father Boniface, though it was carefully kept from general publicview, makes the Church in your Archdiocese less credible as a center of justice, and, even moreseriously, it offers the very clear implication that the Church will subject even its most commit-ted men to harassment, intimidation and occult discipline when these suit Its purpose. Andbecause the matter of race is clearly the basis for Father Boniface’s removal, it is evident thatthe Catholic Church in Indianapolis is not really willing to root out racism in itself nor to bemore than “an uncertain trumpet” in the community.57

The Archbishop quietly rescinded the order, but it was too late. Father Hardinhad decided already that he needed to work outside the Church confines.58 FatherHardin’s decision emerged during one of the most painful periods of his life. Stillpracticing a deep spirituality rooted in his Catholic tradition, he was at the sametime hurt and discouraged by the Church’s racism and the personal rejection heexperienced. He later commented,


The agony of the entire episode was the damage it did to my Mom, Dad, brother and me, theirreparable damage to my role as priest in the Church, and the scandal to all people. In the end,when the decision was reversed to allow me to stay in Indianapolis, there were no apologies,only pretenses to the effect that it did not happen at all. . . . My main support during this peri-od was my belief in, and my love for Jesus. That the Church was not perfect was very clear, butwhat was also clear was the fact that the church institution was not about to change its attitudetoward Black people, Black priests or sisters. Polycarp, too, was handed over by fellowChristians, not to speak of Jesus, Himself.59

During his time at Holy Angels, Father Hardin had tried to work with reformefforts within the Church, sitting with a group called Concerned Black Catholics,the entity that organized the cathedral walkout. Their efforts to incorporate AfricanAmerican traditions into the liturgy, increase representation of black clergy, and tomove the Catholic Church to active advocacy of social justice seemed at a stand-still.60 In frustration, he observed, “The study of the Catholic Church history inAmerica and Indiana revealed to me that any major change of attitude towardBlack people in America would not be derived from its Catholic priests, sistersand brothers. For the most part, the Catholic clergy identified with the racism ofAmerica. The master/slave relationship was constantly upheld.”61

Father Hardin had also tried to exercise leadership in a new group called theBlack Catholic Clergy Caucus (BCCC), later named the National Black CatholicClergy Caucus (NBCCC), founded in Detroit in April 1968.62 Father RollinsLambert, a founder of the BCCC, subsequently invited Father Hardin and otherblack priests to a meeting in Washington, DC, in November of that year. FatherHardin went to the meeting and also attended a regional meeting called by FatherDonald Clark in Detroit in December 1968. This group afforded Father Hardin theopportunity to reexamine his faith, and he observed,

Identity with Blackness in the ministry was a great concern of the Black Clergy Caucus of 1968.When I returned from my first retreat with my Black priest colleagues in Washington, I wasconvinced that Jesus was Black, deeply spiritual, and that He loved me very much. There wasno choice. I had to be a part of the revolution of my people. Everything that my people askedfor was in the Scriptures: justice, love, decency, fair play. Plantation days were over.63

Father Hardin’s zeal to “make genuine black control and leadership effectivewithin the Catholic Church in the black community,” took shape in a 1969 propos-al to the Black Catholic Clergy Caucus for the “Central Office for BlackCatholicism in the U.S.A.” to be established in Indianapolis. The proposaldescribed a “racial crisis” that was “unprecedented in the history of the nation orof the Church,” and outlined a plan for black priests, brothers, and sisters, to workwith African American communities and colleges and to establish training pro-grams. This could be financed, at least in part, by traditional collections for the


“Propagation of the Faith” or “Colored and Indian Missions.”64 Father Hardin wasstruggling to find a way to work constructively within the Church to render it moreinclusive and respectful of its African American members. Despite his anger, hechose to focus on being a positive change agent.

Unfortunately, the Black Catholic Clergy Caucus was moving quite slowly,largely because of protracted deliberation on the part of the Amercian bishops, andFather Hardin believed they were not ready to accept his ideas. Impatient andinspired, he struck out on his own, yet he was careful to retain his treasured roleas a priest.65 With the blessing of his Archabbot, Father Hardin moved out of HolyAngels rectory at the end of 1969 into temporary quarters provided by St. Rita’spastor, Father Bernard Strange. Building on his existing proposal for a BCCCregional center, Father Hardin envisioned a broader mission for the new initiativehe would spearhead in Indianapolis—to “offer a solution to a very critical situa-tion” in the city—and decided to call it the Martin Center, named for St. Martin dePorres, an African-descended saint who served the poor in Peru, and Rev. MartinLuther King, whose work Father Hardin admired immensely.66 He was at a turn-ing point: “It was my dream and the dream of many people who came to supportit, that—having failed at marching, singing, etc.—maybe, somehow, if we workedat understanding through communications, racial hostilities would be bridged andthe world would be made one community. Are we not all brothers and sisters, andChrist is our Brother? Such was the faith and zeal of this new idea.”67

EMBRACING THE ROLE OF EDUCATOR

Founded in December 1969, the Martin Center began with the explicit mis-sion to promote interracial understanding through a method that Father Hardintermed “ethnotherapy.” The goal of ethnotherapy was to open the minds and heartsof both black and white Americans to the ways in which they were engaging inoppression and intolerance. Father Hardin was joined shortly after the founding bySister Jane Schilling, whose exit from Holy Angels convent had been demandedby other sisters who resented her involvement with the Martin Center. Supportedby parishioners, Sister Jane began a partnership with Father Hardin that would lasthis lifetime. Together, the two navigated challenges from their respective religiousorders, spiteful gossip from others about the nature of their relationship as a blackmonk and white nun, and the lack of financial support from the Church. To makeends meet, Father Hardin traveled the country offering workshops on race rela-tions for corporate, public, and private clients, while his colleague, Sister Jane,maintained the Martin Center and held workshops there. With the funds theyreceived from these engagements, they funded local programs and services to theAfrican American community.


Martin Center began in a hostile atmosphere, but quickly became a hub ofrespected activity in Indianapolis.68 Programs expanded in 1971 to include aninnovative and acclaimed “Sickle Cell Center” to test and educate communitymembers; and in April 1972, an Institute for African American Studies was formedto research and celebrate the history and culture of African Americans. Throughthe Institute, Father Boniface and Sister Jane produced an impressive journal TheAfro-American Journal (1973–1978), developed weekly television and radioshows between 1971 and 1991 and created two full-length television documen-taries on African American history and culture, The Kingdom Builders (1975) andFor Love of Freedom (1976).69

All of these activities were neither sanctioned nor opposed by the CatholicChurch, although both Father Hardin and Sister Jane Schilling felt pressure anddistance from their respective religious orders. Father Hardin was thought to bedisobedient by some of the monks at St. Meinrad for not having returned to theArchabbey when he left Holy Angels, yet others, such as the Archabbot and thefirst black monk ordained at St. Meinrad, Father Cyprian Davis, continued to com-municate with Father Hardin and support his work.70 Seminarians were encour-aged to come to the Martin Center for periods of time in order to benefit from theeducational opportunities there. In an interview published in the Louisville Recordin 1970, Father Hardin asked, “The Church, if it becomes relevant, can be a vehi-cle to effect changes (in the relationship between the races). But will the Churchwait until there is a revolution or will it act now?”71

After several years of operation, the educational programs of the MartinCenter were transformed in 1972 into credit-bearing courses through a collabora-tion with the nearby campus of Indiana University–Purdue UniversityIndianapolis (IUPUI). The results of a survey conducted by Father Hardin and anIUPUI colleague, as well as the growing concern for the lack of opportunities forAfrican American adults to obtain a college degree in the local area, led FatherHardin to successfully apply for collegiate status from the State of Indiana, andbecame accredited through the North Central Association of Colleges and Schoolsof the Higher Learning Commission in 1987. From an initial five students, MartinCenter College progressed to become an independent college, Martin College in1979, and when it received approval to offer graduate programs, it became MartinUniversity, in 1990.72

In an ironic twist, when Martin Center College experienced growing pains, thediocese of Indianapolis offered to sell Father Hardin the buildings of St. Francisde Sales Parish, which had been closed in 1983, due in large part to populationshifts brought about by the construction of a highway through the neighborhood,the same threat to the community that Father Hardin had fought in his Holy Angelsdays. This gesture on the part of the archdiocese was interpreted by Thomas


McKenna, who served on the Martin University board of trustees, as a deal inwhich, “He got out from under the yoke of the church and got to do what he want-ed to do. The church got rid of him and gave him enough that was going to keephim focused on a smaller part of the world than maybe the Archdiocese ofIndianapolis.”73

Father Hardin established Martin College as a nondenominational privateinstitution, and stressed its independence from the Catholic Church and St.Meinrad Archabbey. At the same time, he defined his main identity to be a caringpriest and incorporated prayer in the daily activities of his administration. “This ismy priesthood as a Benedictine,” he declared. “I want to be somebody who canwalk among all the people.”74 President for thirty years, he valued interfaith effortsand was truly ecumenical in his appreciation for various Christian, Jewish, andMuslim communities. From his Holy Angels days, he had formed strong bondswith activist ministers in the Indianapolis area, and these persisted. MartinUniversity became a central force in the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhoodwhere it was located, regularly offering cultural events, health services, and vari-ous community education programs.75 One of the most popular programs wasFather Hardin’s Frederick Douglass reenactments. He was said to have a strongresemblance to this famous abolitionist, yet he likened Douglass’s goals to hisown as a priest: “Frederick Douglass was an apologist for America. We who arepriests and evangelists are apologists for truth. We deal with people on this level.I see the Christ figure in Frederick Douglass. He was a minister after he got freefrom slavery.”76

As a Catholic priest, Father Hardin was called upon to offer Mass at manychurches in the Indianapolis area and presided at many weddings, baptisms, andfunerals. In his retirement, he continued to advocate for the several health causesthat were the focus of his attention, including prostate and breast cancer, diabetes,hypertension, and substance abuse. Father Hardin died of complications from astroke in 2012. Yet during this illness, his spiritual life was most apparent. Heprayed openly and frequently. Despite a long tradition of wearing African garb andsecular suits rather than the Roman collar in order to avoid creating distance fromthe others with whom he worked in the African American community, in the endhe chose to be buried at St. Meinrad Archabbey in his monk’s robe.


Father Boniface Hardin as Frederick Douglas, around 2008.Martin University Archives, used with permission.

FORGIVENESS AND HOPE: A RELIGIOUS LIFE WITHIN AND WITHOUT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

In reflections over the course of his life, Father Hardin was disappointed thatthe Catholic Church considered its work with African and African AmericanCatholics of his day a “mission.” Although he was grateful for the work of suchpeople as Mother Katharine Drexel, who fought Church intolerance to work withunderserved populations, the connotation of the word “mission” carried with it anelement of paternalism, the assumption that oppressed African-descended peopleneeded to be saved. He understood how African American culture and spiritualitywere devalued in the schools he attended, yet was grateful to the nuns and priestswho educated him for giving him “a deep sense of God’s love and his ownworth.”77 He was bitterly discouraged by the actions of the Archbishop PaulSchulte who called for his removal, yet later in life, he met with the Archbishopand “in a spirit of love and forgiveness” the rift was healed. He said, “I lovedArchbishop Schulte. He ordained me, and I loved him.”78


As Father Hardin worked with Martin Center and subsequently Martin Collegeand Martin University, he carefully kept a separation from the Catholic Church, butmaintained continuing relationships that enabled him to buy Church property atlower costs when Martin needed more space and to attract donors aligned with theCatholic Church. Without leaving the priesthood or finding another spiritual home,he learned to achieve his goals by operating in independent fashion, preserving adelicate balance born out of struggle and tempered by the patience he found in hismaturity. With characteristic humility, he attributed the results of his labors to God:“The Lord has allowed all this to happen and I’m just his instrument.”79

In a 2004 interview, Father Hardin shared his reflections about how experi-ence and maturity shaped his actions and stance on how best to serve and effectchange. He observed,

Sometimes when you’re in the position like I am you want to do things. When I was younger Ijust did them and then I withstood the acrimony and harsh words against me, but when you geta little older you find yourself being a little bit more conservative. I think I’m more revolution-ary in my thoughts, but I just don’t want to fight the Church. It will be distracting if I say some-thing publicly, and I have done that, but it will not be helpful for me nor the Church because ofthe confusion that we have gone through with the priests in the last several years.80

Father Hardin believed, “It’s one of the mysteries of our work, of our faith. Itallows us to be touched by God and find ourselves doing things we never thoughtwe would do.” Boniface Hardin stayed true to his religious vocation. “I never stopbeing a priest in whatever I do. . . . What’s my real contribution? It’s my priest-hood. I hope wherever I go when I’ve said something to people I thought aboutbeing a priest. It’s a good compliment when people say he’s a good man—but agood priest [is something even more special]. We’re missing the boat if we just tellstories. We must give witness.”81 Father Hardin’s life journey was profoundlyshaped by the Catholic Church and the contemporary social movements challeng-ing racism and championing the disenfranchised. This journey, expanded by thepassing of years and sharpened by historic moments, reflected a strong identityand sense of empowerment as a Black Catholic.


Father Boniface Hardin as President of Martin University c. 2000.Martin University Archives, used with permission.

From the serious young boy growing up in segregated Kentucky who was fas-cinated with Church ritual and was pious in his spiritual life, to the obedient andeager seminarian, to the angry young priest who criticized his Church and railedagainst the unfair censure he received, to the constructive educator who found away to achieve his goals independent of the Church while continuing to love hisreligious tradition, he exemplifies the competing tensions and attractions thatmany Black Catholics face even today. For Father Hardin, anger gave way to for-giveness and hope. The legendary accomplishments of this 88th black priestordained in the United States are a tribute to his compassion, intelligence, andstrong sense of mission, all emanating from a deep spirituality.

NOTES

1Father Boniface Hardin (1933–2012). This essay is based on an original oral history project as well as personalrecords and clippings related to Father Hardin’s life and leadership. Typescripts of the interviews conducted andthis collection of materials related to Father Hardin’s life and work have been donated to the Indiana HistoricalSociety (IHS). A major source for insight into Father Hardin’s reflections on the Catholic Church and his faith isan interview he completed in 1983 as part of a collection of interviews of well-known people in the city ofIndianapolis. See Father Boniface Hardin, interview by Greg Stone, 18 July 1983, #83-37-1-2, 78, Oral HistoryResearch Center, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. Hereafter cited as FBH Oral History. 2Quoted in “Demonstrators Protest Treatment of Priest,” Indianapolis Recorder, 12 April 1969.3Ibid., and “150 Walk Out in a Protest at Indianapolis Cathedral,” The New York Times, 7 April 1969. The inci-dent was widely reported in a number of local papers. See, for example, Anderson (IN) Daily Bulletin, 7 April1969; Rushville (IN) Republican, 7 April 1969; The Fresno (CA) Bee/Republican, 7 April 1969; and Lindon (IN)Daily Citizen, 7 April 1969. For Father Hardin’s perspective on his work to combat racial tensions and injusticesin Indianapolis and efforts to “call him back to the monastery,” see FBH Oral History, 42–44, quotation at 43 andAddendum. For a view of racism and racial divides in the United States, see The Report of the National Advisory


Commission on Civil Disorders (New York, 1968); http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6545/ (accessed 24 October2014). 4Following the cited interview by Greg Stone as part of the Oral History Research Center, Indiana University,Bloomington, IN, is an undated Addendum written by Father Hardin. Hereafter cited as FBH Oral HistoryAddendum, 1.5For historical context see Cyprian Davis, History of Black Catholics in the United States (New York, 1990);Diana L. Hayes and Cyprian Davis, eds. Taking Down Our Harps: Black Catholics in the United States(Maryknoll, NY, 1998); Nathaniel E. Green, Silent Believers: The Black Catholic Experience—A History(Louisville, KY, 1972). 6See www.martin.edu/history7Noted historian Cyprian Davis points to the need for “carefully researched histories carried out on the locallevel,” in History of Black Catholics, xi.8See note 1. For the value of biography as a lens for studying an individual’s agency within the social structure,see Barbara Finkelstein, “Revealing Human Agency: The Uses of Biography in the Study of EducationalHistory,” in Writing Educational Biography: Explorations in Qualitative Research, ed. Craig Kridel (New York,1988), 45–60. 9For a critique of racism in the Catholic Church, consult James Forman, “Black Manifesto,” paper presentation,National Economic Development Conference, Detroit, MI, (26 April 1969). This was a document with whichFather Hardin was familiar. He had requested a printed copy from the United Christian Missionary Society. Fora critique of the “failure of White Catholic theologians to address White Supremacy as a theological problem,”see James H. Cone, “Black Liberation Theology and Black Catholics: A Critical Conversation,” TheologicalStudies 61 (December 2000): 731-808. For a historical overview of race in relation to Catholicism in the UnitedStates, see the sections on the Church and slavery and the later Civil Rights era in Cyprian Davis and JamiePhelps, eds., “Stamped with the Image of God”: African Americans as God’s Image in Black (Maryknoll, NY,2003). 10Father Boniface Hardin, interview with Alexander Jimenez and Ethan Ax, Indianapolis, IN, 2006,Videocassette, tape 1, 35–37.11Tracey K’Meyer, Civil Rights in the Gateway to the South: Louisville, 1945–1980 (Lexington, KY, 2009), 1.Father Hardin talks about race relations and lynching in Kentucky in FBH Oral History, 16.12FBH Oral History, 10–11 and “A. Philip Randolph,” American National Biography Online,http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-01101.html (accessed August 29, 2015).13See, Kentucky State University: kysu.edu/about-ksu/heritage (accessed 28 August, 2015).14Material on Father Hardin’s youth is drawn from the FBH Oral History and perspectives shared by his broth-ers. See William, Albert, and John Hardin (brothers), interview with the Nancy Van Note Chism (NVNC), 27 July2013, Indianapolis, IN.15Fr. Boniface Hardin, “Outline of Talk on Panel,” speech outline, 13 June 1969, IHS, Indianapolis, IN (possiblythe panel was for a meeting of the National Black Catholic Clergy, which was reviewing the Black Manifestoduring this period); Interview with Nathaniel E. Green, author of Silent Believers, 2 June 1979, by EdwardOwens, #19790H233BCK040; Black Church in Kentucky Oral History Project, Louie B. Nunn Center for OralHistory, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY.16William Hardin, The Call and the Life of Father Boniface Hardin, (Play performed by the Christ the King Off-Broadway Players, Christ the King Church, Louisville, KY), October 2012. DVD version of the production is inthe possession of William Hardin; Green, Silent Believers, 64. 17FBH Oral History, 13–14. Diana L. Hayes, “Should Black Catholics Have a Rite of their Own?” U.S. CatholicHistorian (July 1992), 28–31, 29. For examples, see Green, Silent Believers, 15–16, 49.18Green, Silent Believers, 64, 53. See also “History,” Website of St. Monica’s Church, Bardstown, KY,http://stmonicabardstown.org/post/3680871034 (accessed 19 August 2015). 19William, Albert, and John Hardin, Interview, 8.20See Green, Silent Believers, 53. See Nancy Hewitt, “St. Katharine Drexel,” in Notable American Women: TheModern Period: A Biographical Dictionary, ed. Barbara Sicherman and Carol Hurd Green (Cambridge, MA,1980), 206–208.21Lawrence E. Lucas, Black Priest/White Church: Catholics and Racism (New York, 1970); William, Albert, andJohn Hardin, Interview, 6.22If Randy had stayed in Louisville after his elementary schooling, he would have attended Catholic Colored


High School, which opened in 1921. Desegregation in Kentucky higher education would begin in 1950. SeeK’Meyer, Civil Rights, 36 and John Hardin, Fifty Years of Segregation: Black Higher Education in Kentucky,1909–1954 (Lexington, KY, 1997).23Brother Dennis Newton, SVD, “St. Augustine’s Seminary.” http://www.svdsouth.com/st.-augustine-seminary.html (accessed 17 August 2015).24“History,” St. Meinrad Archabbey, http://www.saintmeinrad.org/the-monastery/history (accessed 19 August2015).25Father Cyprian Davis, interview with NVNC, 11 October 2013, Indianapolis, IN, 2. Father Davis (1930–2015),was a pre-eminent historian, archivist and founding member of the National Black Clergy Caucus, and author ofan extensive list of articles and books, including the classic History of Black Catholics in the United States (NewYork, 1990).26William, Albert, and John Hardin, Interview, 7.27Father Cyprian Davis, Interview, 2; William, Albert, and John Hardin, Interview, 7–8.28By way of context, it is worth noting that in 1959 (the year of Boniface’s ordination), the Rev. Martin LutherKing attended the “Monster Meeting” in Indianapolis that led to a local affiliate group of the Southern ChristianLeadership Conference. See Emma Lou Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks in the Twentieth Century (Bloomington,IN, 2000), 164.29Father Boniface Hardin, Rotary talk, 13 February 2001, 2; IHS.30FBH Oral History, 22 and 35.31Ibid., 22.32Green, Silent Believers, 61 and FBH Oral History, 24.33FBH Oral History, 25; see Elliot Jaspin, Buried in the Bitter Waters: The Hidden History of Racial Cleansingin America (New York, 2007); and James W. Loewen, Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism(New York, 2005).34FBH Oral History, 24–25, 63. 35Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks, 4, 6. For a discussion of civic organizations, see Stanley Warren, The SenateAvenue YMCA for African American Men and Boys: Indianapolis, Indiana, 1915–1959 (Virginia Beach, VA,2006). 36Thornbrough, Indiana Blacks, 4. 37Ibid., 17 and 19.38Brendon A. Perry, “St. Rita and St. Bridget,” Indianapolis Recorder, 18 August 2013.39Joseph Smith, interview with NVNC, 16 May 2013, Indianapolis, IN, 13–14.40Ferdye Bryant, Margaret Graves, and Doris Parker, A New Journey of Hope: Holy Angels Catholic Church,1903–2003 (Indianapolis, IN, 2003), 13; “UNWA,” Polis Center, IUPUI, Indianapolis, IN,http://thepoliscenter.iupui.edu/index.php/community-culture/project-1/study-neighborhoods/unwa/narrative-history (accessed 19 August 2015); James V. Smith, Jr., “Creating their Own Style from the White Tradition,”Indianapolis News, 18 September 1986, section B. 41Joseph Smith interview, 2.42FBH Oral History, 24–25.43Ibid., 63.44Ibid. It is worth underscoring that Father Hardin’s early career coincides not only with important years in theCivil Rights Movement, but also against the modernizing background of Vatican II.45For Father Hardin’s views of the history of racism in Indiana, see FBH Oral History, 17–21.46See chapter 8 “The Turbulent Sixties,” in Thornbrough, Blacks in Indiana, for a discussion of the rise of vari-ous groups, with varying political stances and strategies (some with ties to recognized national bodies or move-ments) that organized in Indiana (and especially Indianapolis) during the 1960s to challenge discriminatory laws,practices, and patterns and fight for the passage of civil rights legislation.47FBH Oral History Addendum, 1.48“Mayor Lugar, Police Chief ‘Given’ Flowers from Slain Youth’s Grave,” Indianapolis Recorder, 7 June 1969;“Priests’ Group Protest Slaying on Northside,” Indianapolis Recorder, 2 August 1969. 49“Establishment Seeks Priest’s Ouster: Father Hardin Condemned for Being Militant,” Indianapolis Recorder,29 March 1969.50“Seek Lawsuit to Halt Construction of Highway thru Negro Community,” Indianapolis Recorder, 3 February1968.51In addition to continuous coverage of Father Hardin’s community activism in the Indianapolis Recorder duringhis three years at Holy Angels, the oral histories of Joseph Smith and Mynelle Gardner, 29 May 2013; and


Amanda Strong, 2 December 2013, as well as the FBH Oral History document this activity. Typescripts of allinterviews are available at the IHS.52Sister Jane Schilling, interview with NVNC, 23 April 2013, Indianapolis, IN, 8.53Remarks by Sister Jane Schilling at retirement celebration were captured on “Celebrating 30 Years ofEducational Excellence at Martin University,” Martin University, Indianapolis, IN, 2007, DVD.54“Petition Urges Depressed Innerloop” Indianapolis Recorder, 26 August 1967; “‘Get Together,’ March LeadersWarn” Indianapolis Recorder, 11 May 1968; “Urban League Plans Study of Schools Unrest,” IndianapolisRecorder, 2 March 1968.55FBH Oral History Addendum, 3. For information on Father Groppi, see Burt A. Folkart, “James Groppi, Ex-Priest, Civil Rights Activist, Dies,” Los Angeles Times, 5 November 1985. Online edition,http://articles.latimes.com/1985-11-05/news/mn-4337_1_roman-catholic-priest (accessed 28 August 2015).56Joseph Smith, Interview, 19. 57Letter of Reverend Donald M. Clark to Most Reverend Paul C. Schulte (undated, likely in the latter half of1969), IHS.58Coverage of attempted removal of Father Hardin from Holy Angels Parish is contained in “Establishment SeeksPriest’s Ouster,” Indianapolis Recorder, 29 March 1989; “Demonstrators protest treatment of priests” Indianapolis Recorder, 5 April 1969; “Father Hardin Condemnedfor Being Militant,” Indianapolis Recorder, 12 April 1969. Father Hardin’s recounting of the incident is treatedin a letter: Letter of Father Boniface Hardin to Archabbot Gabriel Verkamp, 26 March 1969, IHS.59FBH Oral History Addendum, 3. St. Polycarp of Smyrna was a 2nd-century Christian bishop who was martyredafter being handed over to the Romans.60Amanda Strong interview, 2. 61FBH Oral History Addendum, 3.62FBH Oral History Addendum, 2. A copy of the “Statement of the Black Catholic Clergy Causus” (1968) isincluded in “Stamped with the Image of God,” ed. Davis and Phelps, 111–114. See also Encyclopedia of AfricanAmerican Religions, ed. Larry G. Murphy and Gary Ward Melton (New York, 2001), 6, 363, 466, 539, 541.63FBH Oral History Addendum, 2.64Father Boniface Hardin, “Proposal to the Black Catholic Clergy Caucus for the Central Office for BlackCatholicism in the U.S.A. to be housed in Indianapolis, Indiana,” Mimeo. 31 May 1969, copy in authors’ posses-sion. On 18 April 1968, the Black Catholic Clergy Caucus had issued a statement declaring the Catholic Churcha racist institution. In this proposal for the regional center, Father Hardin reflected on the influence of this larg-er ferment.65Father Boniface Hardin to Rt. Reverend Gabriel Verkamp, OSB, St. Meinrad Archabbey, 30 October 1969, IHS.66Father Boniface Hardin to Rt. Reverend Cornelius Sweeney, St Joan of Arc Parish, 2 August 1969, authors’ pos-session. See also FBH Oral History, 22.67FBH Oral History Addendum, 4.68Ibid., 4–5.69Martin Center accomplishments are documented in “Martin Center’s Success is Vehicle by Father Boniface,”Indianapolis Recorder, 11 March 2012; also in the appendices to an undated and unlabeled funding proposal forexpansion of Martin Center, possibly around 1973, that contains descriptions of the programs and accomplish-ments of the Martin Center, IHS. 70Father Cyprian Davis interview, 6. 71Quoted in Al McCreary, “‘Relevant’ Church Can Effect Changes,” Louisville Record, 1 October, 1970.72See, Martin University website: www.martin.edu. 73Thomas McKenna, interview with NVNC, 10 November 2014, Indianapolis, IN, 4.74Quoted in Margaret Nelson, “Awards Bring Attention to Education as Ministry,” The Criterion (Indianapolis,IN), 25 August 1995, 3.75Martin Center College and University history is highlighted in Martin University, Book of Achievements,1977–2004, (Indianapolis, IN, 2005). The Martindale-Brightwood community history is part of the Project onReligion and Urban Culture, www.polis.iupui.edu (accessed 27 August 2015).76Margaret Nelson, “Awards,” 3.77Ruth Holliday, “Founding Father: He’s the Energy behind ‘Community Need’ College,” Indianapolis Star, 14August 1988. 78Holiday, “Founding Father.”

Boniface Hardin As Priest, Social Activist, and Founder of Martin University 31179“Martin University Continues to Grow under Father Boniface Hardin’s Leadership,” The Criterion(Archdiocese of Indianapolis, IN), 26 October 2001.80The last part of the quote is not explained, but perhaps refers to a number of widely publicized charges of sex-ual abuse against priests and resulting criticism of the Church’s handling of the situation. For Hardin’s quotation,see Mikel Sahir, “A Man Everyone Needs to Know: Father Boniface Hardin, the President of Martin Universityin Indianapolis, IN,” Muslim Journal, 17 June 2004.81Margaret Nelson, “Awards,” 3.

Documents

WALKING AMONG ALL THE PEOPLE: THE STRUGGLES …az480170.vo.msecnd.net/.../jaah-ms-chism-and-walton-pdf.pdf · THE STRUGGLES OF BONIFACE HARDIN AS PRIEST, SOCIALACTIVIST, AND FOUNDER