Tag Archive

1949 Federal Education Bill

When Niebuhr Met Spelly (sort of)

As often happens around this blog (I wish we all shared an office), somebody prompts someone else to think about a post. Tim Lacy has helped me do this yet again. He asked me what I knew about Niebuhr and anti-Catholicism. What follows is one insight into that query. In the summer of 1949, Reinhold Niebuhr had had enough of Catholic cries of “intolerance” and “bigotry.” His Democratic ally and fellow ADA member, Eleanor Roosevelt, had provoked a testy fight with New York City’s imperious Francis Cardinal Spellman over a bill before Congress that would extend federal funds to pupils Read more