Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish
The Catholic Presence in a Changing Selma
The scene is typical of any Catholic church in the United States after the Sunday
liturgy. Parishioners mill about, chatting with friends and greeting neighbors.
The fact that the group is integrated seems unremarkable. But, even today,
for a church in Selma, Alabama, such a gathering is significant. Out of more
than 100 churches here, Our Lady Queen of Peace is the only one in this city
of 25,000 people where each Sunday African Americans worship alongside their
neighbors of European ancestry.
Life in Selma is forever shaded by the past. In 1965 Selma reluctantly became
a symbol of Southern segregation and American racism. In 1971 the Catholic
church hierarchy deliberately turned the local Catholic community into a different
kind of symbol. Selma’s Catholics are living up to their symbolic role within
the city.
In the national imagination Selma, Alabama, is frozen in time, confined to black-and-white
images of nearly 40 years ago. Cameras recorded the events of “Bloody Sunday,”
March 7th, 1965, when police on horseback assaulted civil rights
marchers while tear-gas and screams filled the air.
The impact of Selma’s billy clubs and bullwhips was felt around the country.
Within four months Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This landmark
federal law, the nation’s response to events in Selma, forever changed politics
in the United States. But the glory of this triumph of American values doesn’t
reflect well on Selma. Instead, people associate the city with notorious racism.
Selma’s place in American history might be a public relations nightmare. For
the city’s residents, though, their hometown is the stage for the daily drama
of their lives. They have commonplace and immediate concerns. Mothers bear
children; students attend schools; families worship at religious services; people
look for jobs with dignity; men and women marry; individuals die, others are
born.
The Catholic presence in Selma has contributed to enduring qualities as well
as to important changes in Selma. The Edmundites have been there through it
all. Since 1937 the Edmundites have served the people of Selma in the course
of ordinary life. Well before the civil rights movement came to Selma, the
Edmundite fathers and brothers were serving the Black community there. Through
the years since the civil rights struggle has moved on, the Edmundites have
continued to serve the people of Selma.
The legacy of social service by Edmundites of an earlier day can be found in
programs supported by the Edmundite Southern Missions. Edmundite ministry is
collaborative, with laity, other religious and Edmundite Missions Corps volunteers
serving the people in an around Selma.
The one Catholic parish in Selma also testifies to the Edmundite influence.
Queen of Peace is at the heart of Catholic life in Selma, riding the tide of
its human events day by day. Through the integrated parish the Edmundite influence
in Selma now extends beyond Black ministry to serve the Church in a way not
otherwise provided.
Such was not always the case. Before 1971, there were two small Catholic parishes
in Selma, one for African Americans, one for whites. After more than a decade
of turbulent civil rights dispute, Mobile Bishop John L. May merged Saint Elizabeth
and Assumption parishes. He wanted the parishes combined as “a sign of reconciliation.”
Bishop May shared the conviction that was advanced in the American Catholic
Tribune in 1891 when Daniel Rudd said: “The Catholic Church alone can
break the color line. Our people should help Her do it.”
Two Edmundites are natives of Selma, Alabama. Bishop Moses Anderson, S.S.E.
and Msgr. James P. Robinson, S.S.E. Both joined the Society of Saint Edmund
in the early 1950s. Bishop Anderson has often administered the sacrament of
Confirmation to members of Queen of Peace parish since his consecration as auxiliary
bishop of Detroit on January 27th, 1983.
In 1972, Monsignor Robinson represented the Black community in negotiations
with Mayor Joseph Smitherman. The result was the Selma Accords of 1972, which
addressed housing and employment concerns and defused racial tensions.
Queen of Peace is more than a unique symbol of fellowship and collaboration
within a sometimes polarized city. It is a bridge connecting previously separated
members of the community. In the parish men and women face their disagreements
while they share their common ground of faith.
Both Blacks and whites serve as members of the parish council and choir as
well as Eucharistic ministers and lectors. Whites join African Americans in
celebrating Martin Luther King Day and Blacks join Irish parishioners in celebrating
Saint Patrick’s Day.
Blacks and whites in Selma are people of deep faith, people close to God.
Perhaps more than in any other place, in Selma a symbol of racial harmony carries
great meaning. More important is the real task of bringing separated people
together day by day to build up and celebrate their kinship in faith.
Queen of Peace Parish, 309 Washington
Street, Selma, Alabama 36701
Phone [334] 874-8931; Fax [334] 874-8976
Father Carroll W. Plourde, S.S.E., Pastor
Brother Peter J. Stanfield, S.S.E. Pastoral Associate