the history — BAD CATHOLICS

learn the

Mostly yes! Let’s call it historical fiction. A creative framing device here, some liberties taken with the details there. “Mom” and “El” are fictional characters, but the story is based on real people and real events.
They sure did. Most white Catholics either supported segregation or refused to pay the cost required to dismantle it. You can read more about them in my (Matthew’s) article “Real, Good, and Sincere Catholics.”
Yup! It’s where King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference chose to expand their fight for civil rights into the urban North. They joined forces with folks who’d been at this work for years, like the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations. You can read more about this “Selma of the North” in The Chicago Freedom Movement, edited by Mary Lou Finley, Bernard Layfette Jr., James R. Ralph Jr., and Pam Smith.
Some like Sister Angelica did, yes. But remember, she was an exception to the rule. You can learn more about her in our (Judith and Jennifer’s) article, “The Nun Hit by a Brick.” You should also read about pioneering Black sisters who preceded her like Sr. Mary Antona Ebo, not to mention the racism they faced from their white peers, in Dr. Shannen Dee Williams’s book Subversive Habits.

Actually, by many measures things are worse today than they’ve been in decades. Despite the fact that attitudes have shifted, deep racial inequality remains. Our schools are disparately funded. Segregation is getting worse. The wealth gap has widened. Health disparities are abysmal. And efforts are underway to keep you from learning any of this!
Fr. Bryan Massingale wrote the book on racial justice and the Catholic Church. Like, literally. So that’s a great place to start. You should also check out Olga Segura’s Birth of a Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church and Dan Horan, OFM’s A White Catholic’s Guide to Racism and Privilege. If you’d prefer a podcast, you could add The Gloria Purvis Podcast to your listening list. She insists that a consistent ethic of life for Catholics in the world today must include racial justice.
First you should see if there are folks in your own community engaged in this work already. There are a number of national networks of religious communities coming together to make a more just and equitable world. You could join them! A number of Catholic institutions and organizations are wrestling with the legacies of racism and colonialism in our own communities. You could support them! And if there isn’t a justice ministry in your parish, or a community organization in your town, you could be the exception and start one!