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Knights of Peter Claver founded to keep Black Catholics in church [1]

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Date: 2024-05-31  

Created as a means to keep Black Catholics engaged in the church, the Knights of Peter Claver have become the largest historically Black Catholic lay organization in the United States, according to New Orleans Historical.

Josephite priests founded the fraternal society in 1909 in Mobile, Ala., because they did not want the church to lose Black members who joined fraternal organizations with Black lodges.

“They simply joined them for social and beneficial purposes,” reads a 1910 article in “The Colored Harvest.” “Time and again they have told the missionaries that they would gladly leave them if there were anything else to take their place. This is undoubtedly the most important movement for colored Catholics that has taken place for many a day.”

At the time, white Catholic fraternal orders, such as the Knights of Columbus, would not allow Black members.

The Knights are named for Saint Peter Claver, a Spanish Jesuit missionary who dedicated his life to helping enslaved Africans in the 17th century. Committed to “spreading faith, hope and love through friendship, unity and Christian charity,” the organization includes the Ladies Auxiliary, the Junior Division, Junior Daughters, the Fourth Degree Knights and the Fourth Degree Ladies of Grace.

According to Black Past, the Knights did not immediately fight to desegregate the Catholic Church. In fact, Marcellus Dorsey was expelled for writing articles that criticized the church’s segregation. In 1939, the Knights created a committee that supported Black priests and pushed to keep them in the U.S. instead of sending them to Africa.

The Knights also joined forces with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Urban League during the civil rights movement.

The Knights’ national headquarters moved to New Orleans in 1951. Its current location at 1825 Orleans Ave. was dedicated in 1976.

For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.

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