The National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice and the Long War on Poverty

This paper will examine the involvement of the National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice in the War on Poverty in the 1960s and 1970s.  This paper is part of a second book project that builds on my first book, Race and the War on Poverty: From Watts to East L.A., by probing the role various religious organizations played in the development and activism of community organizations involved in the War on Poverty.  While some historians, such as James Findlay and David Chappell, have explored the role of religion and the black freedom struggle, scholars have just tentatively begun to address the connection between religion and antipoverty efforts. 

The long War on Poverty was fought largely by ordinary people in grassroots community organizations which often had connections to the black freedom struggle, the Chicano movement and feminism.  In addition, those social movement/antipoverty organizations often had a strong religious component.  This paper will explore what I see as an often intricate and fundamental connection between religious organizations, social movements, and community antipoverty agencies through the civil rights and antipoverty activities of the National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice. 

While addressing the specific issue of religion and the War on Poverty, this paper also aims to raise fundamental questions about the role of religion in American society and the relationship between church and state.  The social movements and the War on Poverty challenged the political and economic status quo in the 1960s and 1970s and raised important questions about race, gender and the role of the poor in American society.  The significant involvement, in some cases, of religious organizations in antipoverty efforts during that period, challenged the religious status quo as well, and raised issues of the role of the involvement of those organizations in the American public/private state.