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This work explores the history of the Roman Catholic Church s outreach to African Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area, beginning with the establishment of a mission for African American Catholics and culminating in the formation of local chapters of the Catholic Interracial Council. The Council chapters helped to usher in the civil rights movement in the Bay Area, and pushed Catholic Church officials to respond more forcefully to the movement s goals. In doing so, lay Catholic civil rights activists often clashed with their Church s clergy and hierarchy and challenged ecclesiastical authority. Several of those involved in the Catholic civil rights movement also went on to become part of San Francisco s liberal political tradition in the 1970 s and beyond.

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Clay O´Dell, PhD, earned his doctorate in religious studies from the University of Virginia with a focus in American Catholic history, and has published several articles in that field. He is currently Director of Advocacy for the Catholic Health Association in Washington, D.C.

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