Blacks' History With The Catholic Church Is No 'Joke'

The season of Lent, which just got underway, is one of the biggest traditions in Catholicism. An interesting coincidence is that both I and Raymond Lambert, my friend and co-author of the book "All Jokes Aside: Standup Comedy Is a Phunny Business," went to Catholic school. 

"All Jokes Aside" chronicles Raymond's legendary Chicago comedy club of the same name, a "star factory" that helped launch the careers of Steve Harvey, Oscar winner Mo'Nique, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Carlos Mencia, D.L. Hughley and many other Kings and Queens of Comedy. The club was also the subject of the acclaimed documentary "Phunny Business," which debuted on Showtime in February 2012 during Black History Month.

One of the funny anecdotes Raymond shares in "All Jokes Aside" is his experience in the 1970s as one of only a handful of black students attending Salesianum, an all-boys Catholic college-prep academy in Wilmington, Del. (A really cool video retrospective of Raymond's recent return to Salesianum in which he imparts life lessons to current students is available by clicking here.)

The following is a passage from "All Jokes Aside" that ended up on the "cutting room floor" and didn't make the final version of the book. The passage describes the historic relationship between African Americans and Catholic schools. Many of these descriptions apply to both Raymond's experience at Salesianum and my own experience attending Holy Spirit School in Columbus, Ohio:

The Lamberts were not unusual in sending their son Raymond to Catholic school at Salesianum. There has been a long-standing relationship between the African-American community and the Catholic Church, dating back to at least the early 1800s. This is according to the book "Growing Up African American in Catholic Schools," a 1996 volume published by Teachers Press and edited by Jacqueline Jordan Irvine and Michèle Foster. 

In the 1950s and '60s, when many predominantly black schools were under-funded and before the integration of public schools became widespread, Catholic schools provided an alternative for African Americans to receive a quality education. Catholic parishes historically courted African Americans "in the hopes of swelling the numbers of African Americans who would require or desire a Catholic education," according to "Growing Up African American in Catholic Schools."

The authors "refute the notion that African American students who meet success in Catholic schools are middle-class African Americans who would do well in most U.S. schools," according to a review of the book published in the Harvard Educational Review. 

"In fact, their evidence indicates that the students who are best served and make the greatest gains in Catholic schools are those who are worst served in the U.S. public schools. The authors also make clear that Catholic schools continue to educate a particular population well, even though they spend less per student and thus have fewer materials and resources." 

For example, the Holy Angels School in Chicago devoted resources to helping working-class and poor urban youth achieve their full potential, regardless of economic status.

"Growing Up African American in Catholic Schools" features the perspectives of black people from all walks of life who attended Catholic school and "are successful and who possess such qualities as resiliency, accommodation to the dominant culture without assimilation, and retention of their positive cultural identities."

(In addition to co-authoring "All Jokes Aside: Standup Comedy Is a Phunny Business," Chris Bournea directed the forthcoming documentary "Lady Wrestler: The Amazing, Untold Story of African-American Women in the Ring.")