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Priest Considered for Sainthood for Fighting Suffolk Racism

Posted June 27, 2010 by Patrick Young, Esq.
Categories: Hate Watch

The priest who founded Little Flower Children and Family Services is now being considered for sainthood by the Catholic Church for his heroic stand against violent racists in Suffolk County. The New York Times reports that Msgr. Bernard Quinn is being considered for sainthood because he worked to desegregate the Church during the 1920s and 1930s and because he fought back against racial violence in Suffolk.

Quinn was the son of Irish immigrants who apparently learned to despise racism from his parents. As a young priest he battled against efforts to exclude blacks from parishes in Brooklyn and to establish ministries to serve non-white Catholics arriving during the Depression-era migration of Blacks to the North and the immigration of non-whites from the Caribbean.

In 1928 he established the Little Flower orphanage in Wading River in Suffolk. Most of the orphans there were African American. When local racists believed to be linked to the Ku Klux Klan burned the orphanage down, Quinn rebuilt it. When it was burned down again the same year by those wishing to preserve the whiteness of the county, Quinn had it rebuilt yet again. This time out of fireproof bricks.

In the midst of hatred, Quinn told African Americans; “I would give my last drop of blood for you,’”

In his work in Brooklyn, Quinn was known for promoting music education in the African American community. Both Lena Horne and Pearl Bailey, singers who would become prominent in the 1950s, began their careers under his tutelage.

Tags : catholics, racism, suffolk

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