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The University News

The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

Our Past, Now

Saint Louis University was the first school in Missouri to ban racial segregation. It did so in the summer of 1944, 10 years before the federal mandate in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Father Claude Heithaus, S.J., a SLU professor, was the man behind this mission.

Fr. Heithaus spoke out forcefully against racial discrimination. He lectured publicly against bigotry, although his immediate superiors forbade it. In February, 1944, he delivered a passionate sermon denouncing prejudice. This speech spurred so much controversial discussion that it led to the University’s desegregation in a matter of months.

It also led to Fr. Heithaus’s banishment from the University.

Now touted as an impetus of needed change, he lost his job. How could he be punished for doing something that turned out to be right?

Fr. Heithaus made people uncomfortable. He compared the white supremacists of his time with Nazis. He claimed that if the church accepted segregation as tradition, it might as well accept cannibalism. And although his superiors realized the merit of his argument in hindsight-in hindsight, it seems, everything is clearer-and although his cause is now an accepted tenant of this country, he was considered radical in his time.

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That’s a bad word.

Fr. Heithaus sacrificed his job, but through his activism, he showed the value of truth over comfort. He reminds us to shun injustice, to recognize it-call it out-eliminate it and build something better in its place. He followed his conscience.

And he reminds us to follow our consciences. Status quo is not necessarily the status quo because it is right. It is the status quo, rather, because it is habit. But Fr. Heithaus reminds us that we can make the status quo right-would many think twice today about the beliefs he espouses in his speech?

Don’t forget this.

Perhaps you think McDonald’s should pay tomato pickers more per bushel to improve their standard of living. You hold a strong opinion about recent immigration debates. You contend with divestment as outlined by Students for Solidarity with Palestine. You support the Worker’s Rights Consortium, which assures that SLU clothes aren’t made in sweatshops.

Keep it up.

Be inspired by Fr. Heithaus’ actions. Don’t give up on your cause, whatever it may be, just because it hasn’t changed anything yet, or because someone says, “You’re wrong.” Ask them: “Why?”

Defend your point. And debate the opposition. Tell us why we should listen to you.

It’s what we do at a university.

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