Fourth-grader Maya Hart said it wasn’t hard for her to figure out why her school, St. Sabina, was turned away from a mostly white Catholic athletic league.
“They don’t want us to play with them,” she explained. “Because they don’t like black people.”
When her parents, Barbara and Donald Hart, moved to Chicago’s Auburn-Gresham neighborhood in 1968, it was mainly white. “But then one neighbor would see you moved in, and they’d leave, and then another,” Barbara Hart said, shaking her head.
Many families that left went to the white parishes now deciding whether St. Sabina can join their league. Donald Hart said he would like to invite parents from those schools to see his neighborhood and his daughter’s school for themselves.
“Come and visit the church, first, before you condemn,” said Hart, a retired Chicago police records clerk.
More than a week after the Southside Catholic Conference voted to reject predominantly black St. Sabina as a member, coaches and clerics, parents and young athletes are weighing the decision and what it says about race and religion.
Some white parishioners at the conference’s 21 member schools have expressed outrage that parents’ concerns about safety have been called a smokescreen for racism. Others say they fear their communities have been tainted by what they see as a vote to exclude blacks.
Some African-Americans say they too fear sending their children to unfamiliar neighborhoods. And others believe it’s just more of the same racism they’ve endured for years.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, which has expressed its disappointment with the decision in the strongest terms, is expected to encourage discussion about such issues when a representative meets Thursday with members of the conference at an undisclosed location.
Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina, said Friday that he is still willing to join the league–as long as no special conditions are imposed on his children, such as limiting them to day or away games.
When urban historian Timothy Neary heard about the school’s plight, he said it struck him that during the Depression and World War II, children in St. Sabina had more opportunities to participate in interracial sports than they do today.
“It was an all-white area, but the white schools competed in sports with all-black schools,” Neary said. “When St. Sabina was all white, it hosted the St. Elizabeth’s basketball team, which was all black.”
When black people began moving into new neighborhoods after World War II, he said, whites moved farther out despite pastors who encouraged them to stay. Racial tensions escalated in neighborhoods that seemed to change overnight.
Blacks face greater risks
“But ironically, it’s usually been blacks who have been endangered in white areas rather than whites in black areas,” he said.
Andrew Carter, 56, who is black and has lived in the Auburn-Gresham area for 30 years, said he wasn’t bothered by whites who might fear coming into the neighborhood.
“I feel the same way about them,” said Carter, a janitor at Cook County Hospital. “We’re more scared of going into their neighborhoods. Shoot, you turn down the wrong street in some of [those areas] and watch out.”
Though he said he admired “Father Mike” for battling racism, Carter wasn’t hopeful that it could ever be beat. “I really don’t think we’ll ever overcome it. It’s just something we’re going to have to live and deal with. It’s something that’s here. It’s the American way.”
As school let out Friday at St. Bernadette parish in Evergreen Park, parent Kelly Zawisza, 25, recalled playing basketball games at predominantly African-American schools on the South Side as a youngster.
“I never had a bad experience,” she said.
Safety concerns
Still, another parent of four children said she had serious safety concerns about driving her children long distances into the city. “It’s fear for the safety of my children. It doesn’t have anything to do with [racism],” said Patty Meyer, 35, of Evergreen Park.
Hank Lenzen, the conference’s executive director, declined to release an accounting of the 11-9 vote taken May 24, and many parish representatives declined to say whether they had supported or opposed St. Sabina.
Those that would comment said they were distraught that concerns over safety and other matters resulted in denying St. Sabina the right to play.
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“We didn’t think there was any reason to not allow them into the conference,” said Mark Boyle, president of the St. Barnabas Athletic Board.
Cathy Sullivan, athletic director for St. Alexander, also voted affirmatively. “It’s crazy; I think those kids deserve a chance to play. … Our heart goes out to them.”
Mike Point of St. Bernadette, who is on the executive board of the conference, said he would be willing to be a chaperone if safety is the issue.
Lenzen, who said he hopes St. Sabina will be admitted, defended other schools against charges of racism. “Their concern is safety in the neighborhood,” he said. “Not one conversation had to do with black and white.”
But he acknowledged that “it’s a deeper issue than just playing sports at this point. It probably always has been a problem from a standpoint that we haven’t had enough integration within the area.”
Tom Fitzgerald, president of the athletic club at St. Linus, declined to disclose how he voted but did say that safety was the uppermost issue in people’s minds.
No race issue
“To say that race is an issue is not substantiated, based upon the fact that a team has never refused to play a team of African-Americans before,” he said.
Several board members said it wasn’t too late to allow St. Sabina into the league, provided they explored the issue of safety. “It was an 11-9 vote. It wasn’t a landslide,” Lenzen said. “That in itself should show that there is some reasonable thinking going on.”
Jim Kane can’t quite understand why anyone would have qualms about playing sports at a black school. For 15 years he’s been driving a team of mostly white grammar school pupils from Lincoln Park to a West Side church just so they can play basketball with black and Hispanic children.
“We could play all-white schools if we wanted to, but that’s like playing yourself,” said Kane, a coach at St. Clement. “What kind of broadening experience is that?”
Kane thinks the children themselves are the hope for real change–preferably children on a basketball court. “Nothing is going to get better if we don’t get together,” he said. “And one of the best ways is children playing athletics together.”
Vote on conference
The Southside Catholic Conference, with 21 member schools in the city and south suburbs, voted 11-9 on May 24 to deny St. Sabina admittance.
Eight schools have said they voted for St. Sabina: St. Barnabas, St. Christina, St. Denis and St. Mary Star of the Sea in Chicago; St. Germaine in Oak Lawn; St. Michael in Orland Park; St. Alexander in Palos Heights; and Queen of Martyrs in Evergreen Park.
Only St. Louis de Montfort, in Oak Lawn, has acknowledged that it voted against St. Sabina.
Mike Point, of St. Bernadette in Evergreen Park, said his school missed last week’s vote but would have been in favor of St. Sabina joining.
Eight schools declined to say how they voted: St. Cajetan, Christ the King, Annunciata and St. Bede the Venerable in Chicago; Cardinal Bernardin in Orland Hills; and St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. Gerald and St. Linus in Oak Lawn.
Efforts to reach St. John Fisher in Chicago; St. Albert the Great in Burbank and Most Holy Redeemer in Evergreen Park were unsuccessful.