Robert B. Anderson, S.J., an assistant history professor at Saint Louis University, possesses expertise in civil rights history. Anderson grew up in the South and is a member of the New Orleans Providence Society of Jesus.

He received his doctorate of Philosophy from Boston College. Anderson, interested in race relations, concentrated his research on the race and religion especially within Catholic colleges in New Orleans during the’40s and `50s. He wanted to examine the relationship between race and religion and of race as a moral issue.

“Being a Southerner, racial segregation is a topic you cannot walk away from,” Anderson said. “The question of race is part of my social and culture background.”

His studies focus on Catholic beliefs and how they were practiced. Anderson was interested in seeing if Catholics addressed race as a moral issue or social norm.

According to Anderson, the majority of Catholics did not see racial segregation as a moral issue, but rather as a practiced, social norm.

The Church also reinforced the racial segregation, separating white from black parishes.

In his research, Anderson examined Catholics who challenged and rejected racial segregation and wanted to see it removed from the church. Catholics challenged racial segregation because they looked at what brought them together, not at how they were different. In the eyes of God, everyone was equal. These Catholics became advocates for the removal of racial segregation in the church.

For the betterment of society, the church did not promote segregation but accepted it because it kept peace in the South.

The Church knew that the dismantling of segregation would come in time, so it chose to do nothing, and allowed the institution to crumble naturally.

Catholics challenged the issues of segregation long before the civil rights movement. In 1956 the Archbishop of New Orleans addressed segregation as a moral issue by saying that racial segregation is sinful and immoral.