Segregation, Desegregation
and Global Catholicism in St. Louis
This exhibit explores the role of Catholic institutions—and especially congregations of Catholic sisters—in shaping the intertwined dynamics of race and religion in St. Louis.
What was the role of Catholic institutions—and specifically congregations of Catholic sisters—in both supporting and dismantling systemic racism in St. Louis?
- What do the archives of women religious reveal about the everyday lives, strategies, and aspirations of Black individuals and communities navigating segregation in St. Louis?
- To what extent did the city reflect broader national trends regarding segregation and racial inequality?
Catholicism and the “Color Line”
The archives of women religious offer some of the most powerful—and perhaps surprising—insights into St. Louis’s complex history of segregation and racial integration.
In 19th and 20th century St. Louis, sisters played central roles in institutions where the dynamics of race and religion were deeply entangled: they taught in schools, staffed parishes, ran hospitals, and worked directly in neighborhoods. Their records expose the tension between Catholic ideals of human dignity and the social realities of a segregated nation. As you’ll see, many sisters sought to extend education and opportunity to Black students and women, even as they faced resistance from civic authorities, church leadership, and entrenched racial attitudes within their own communities.
This exhibit features materials from three local archives: the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Consolidated Archives, the Archives of the Society of the Sacred Heart, and the Saint Louis University Archives.
Click through the tiles below to explore how sisters navigated systems of racial inequality of St. Louis—sometimes reinforcing it, sometimes boldly challenging it—and how attending to their experiences reshapes our understanding of local and global Catholic histories.
Drawing on the SCAC archival collections, this exhibit situates the story of segregation and desegregation in St. Louis within a broader history of global Catholicism.
The materials presented here—letters, photographs, community chronicles, and sisters’ writings—reveal how decisions made in local classrooms, convents, and parishes were linked to larger conversations about equality, mission, and justice within the Church.
sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet
In 1845, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet challenged prevailing social norms by opening St. Joseph’s School for the Colored, the first school in St. Louis dedicated to educating Black children, both free and enslaved. The sisters’ brief but courageous venture linked St. Louis to broader national struggles over slavery, race, and education—an early testament to their conviction that learning was a right owed to all.
In 1937, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet again sought to expand educational opportunities for Black students in St. Louis. St. Joseph High School grew under their direction into a center of education, faith, and aspiration. Explore student life through St. Joseph Chatter, the school’s newspaper, for a glimpse into classroom learning, athletics, the arts, and graduation dreams.
In the 1940s, Sister Anna Joseph—principal of St. Joseph High School—became an outspoken advocate for racial justice in the context of St. Louis’ segregated education system. In a striking letter, she defended the school’s mission to educate Black students and challenged diocesan leaders to uphold the Church’s ideals of equality. Her words reveal both the courage and the contradictions of a woman religious navigating the intersecting complexities of race, gender, and religion in mid-century America.
St. Joseph High School stood at the crossroads of local, national, and global Catholic life. Archival materials reveal how this Black Catholic school in St. Louis was connected to broader networks of faith—from retreats and interracial collaborations across the American South to missionary encounters linking students with Catholic communities in British Honduras and Rome. Through these relationships, St. Joseph’s students came to see their education as part of a wider Catholic world that transcended racial and geographical boundaries.
Society of the Sacred Heart
A national and global story
Founded in France in 1800, the Society of the Sacred Heart established its first American foundation in St. Charles, Missouri, in 1818, and from there built a network of schools across the United States and the world. The Society’s archives in St. Louis preserve records that link these local, national, and global histories — including materials on Manhattanville College in New York and Maryville College in St. Louis.
Studying these two collections together reveals how Catholic sisters administering colleges in New York and St. Louis navigated questions of education, race, and belonging.
Saint Louis University archives
The roots of Black Catholic education and religious life in St. Louis stretch across oceans. Revolutions in France and Haiti displaced nuns, refugees, and religious orders who brought with them new ideas about mission, education, and community. By the mid-nineteenth century, St. Louis had become a crossroads of these global Catholic migrations—where European and Caribbean influences met the realities of American slavery and segregation. Amid these forces, Catholic sisters built institutions that both reflected and resisted the racial divisions of their age, shaping a local Church deeply entangled with global change.
Saint Elizabeth's Parish
Friends and Foes
Founded in 1873 as St. Louis’ first Black Catholic parish, St. Elizabeth’s emerged at a time when segregation increasingly shaped public life—including worship. From the beginning, this institution faced racial discrimination and persistent financial challenges that often required seeking aid beyond the Black community. Yet its survival and growth owed much to the determination and self-advocacy of its members. Click through the tiles to explore parish records preserved in the Saint Louis University Archives.
Was Saint Louis University ahead of the times?
During the 1920s and 1930s, SLU opened its School of Education to members of the African American order of the Oblate Sisters of Providence. At a moment when most U.S. colleges and universities remained closed to Black students, SLU provided meaningful access to higher education, even as the institution itself remained segregated. Sr. Mary Laurentia’s studies at SLU and her later advocacy for Catholic education shows how limited institutional access enabled Black women religious to use their own educational training to expand and defend opportunities for Black Catholic students, while continuing to navigate persistent racial barriers within the Church and society.