J
JimG
Guest
Just finished Rising Road, by Sharon Davies. Subtitled “A True Tale of Love, Race, and Religion, in America,” it’s a book of history, not fiction, but it has the feel of a novel.
You may think there is a lot of anti-Catholicism today, but the anti-Catholicism of the 1920’s south will astonish. It was possible then to run for elective office—and win—on a purely anti-Catholic platform. It was possible to obtain an order for involuntary commitment of a child over 18 years old to an insane asylum, simply by showing that she had been ordered by her parents not to convert to Catholicism, and refused. Two physicians would easily take such refusal to return to the religion of her parents as a sign of mental unbalance—without ever examining the supposed patient.
And it was possible for a protestant minister to walk up to the porch of a rectory and shoot a priest dead. And then to mount as a defense that the priest had married his legal age daughter—to a Catholic! That was nearly a more unthinkable thing than murder itself.
The minister who had shot the priest had a powerful defense team of lawyers, led by future Supreme Court justice, Hugo Black. It was not discovered until years later that the KKK had raised money to pay for the defense. Three of the four defense lawyers for the shooter were members of the KKK. Hugo Black was not. He joined later.
A remarkable book. I recommend it.
You may think there is a lot of anti-Catholicism today, but the anti-Catholicism of the 1920’s south will astonish. It was possible then to run for elective office—and win—on a purely anti-Catholic platform. It was possible to obtain an order for involuntary commitment of a child over 18 years old to an insane asylum, simply by showing that she had been ordered by her parents not to convert to Catholicism, and refused. Two physicians would easily take such refusal to return to the religion of her parents as a sign of mental unbalance—without ever examining the supposed patient.
And it was possible for a protestant minister to walk up to the porch of a rectory and shoot a priest dead. And then to mount as a defense that the priest had married his legal age daughter—to a Catholic! That was nearly a more unthinkable thing than murder itself.
The minister who had shot the priest had a powerful defense team of lawyers, led by future Supreme Court justice, Hugo Black. It was not discovered until years later that the KKK had raised money to pay for the defense. Three of the four defense lawyers for the shooter were members of the KKK. Hugo Black was not. He joined later.
A remarkable book. I recommend it.
