By Dr. Joan Zurhellen, Diocesan Archivist
West Tennessee Catholic (diocesan newspaper)
October 16, 2003

http://cdom.org/wtc/wtc_archives/wtc101603/wtc_pages/feature_article1.html

October 12, 1908, marked the inception of a new parish which over several generations was to be responsible for bringing many African Americans in Memphis into the Church. On that date, ground was broken for St. Anthony of Padua Church and School, located at the corner of Hill and Concord Streets, on land now a part of the St. Jude Hospital complex.

St. Anthony of Padua was the 12th Catholic Church built in West Tennessee, the eighth Catholic Church in Memphis, and the first Catholic Church in the region built for African Americans in the era when the races were still segregated.

Few African Americans in the city at that time were Roman Catholic, and an earlier attempt in 1875 by the Dominicans of St. Peter's to found a parish for African Americans on land on Washington near Orleans had failed. When Rev. Thomas Byrne became Bishop of the Nashville Diocese in 1894, one of his interests was to attract more African Americans to the Church and to provide a church for them in Memphis. Planning for St. Anthony was begun in 1905, and the dream became a reality on June 13, 1909, the Feast Day of St. Anthony of Padua, when the wooden structure which was the first Church of St. Anthony was dedicated by Bishop Byrne. The Mass was concelebrated by priests from several Memphis parishes, and Brother Maurelian and Brothers from Christian Brothers College provided the choir for the service.

St. Anthony of Padua was a mission of St. Peter Church. Its pastors for several decades were from the Josephite order. Father Joseph Dube was its first pastor. He oversaw the opening of the school on September 8, 1909. It was first staffed by two nuns from the Sisters of Charity from Mt. St. Joseph, Cincinnati, who also staffed St. Thomas School at the time. The nuns who taught at St. Anthony lived at the St. Thomas convent since there was no convent on the St. Anthony property. The school enrollment was light at first, but by the end of the school year 100 students were enrolled in the elementary school, and the numbers continued to grow over the early years of the parish.

A 1918 Josephite Mission publication indicated that when the church was dedicated in 1909, its membership numbered just four Catholicsthree laborers from Louisiana and a convert who had formerly been pastor of a local Episcopal Church. The same publication described the 1918 congregation of 340 as "entirely made up of converts," the reward of a growing school, missionary zeal, and active propagation of the faith by its pastors, especially its third pastor, Father Joseph Glenn.

According to a similar 1915 publication, Father Glenn had determined that "if the African American population did not become more familiar with the truths of Catholicity and the position of the Church on important questions, it would not be his fault."

He became active in non-Catholic missions held in Memphis, and in 1914 or 1915 he inaugurated what he called an "Education Campaign" which consisted of lectures delivered in various parts of the city to non-Catholic audiences.

He also held large catechetical classes both for the school children and for adults, and records indicate that it was not unusual to have large groups of 35 or more people baptized or received into the Church at the same time during his time as pastor.

In the 1930s the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph were summoned back to Cincinnati by their Bishop who needed them to staff schools there, and in 1937 the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth assumed charge of the school at St. Anthony's grade school. In 1940 a high school program was added to the school with 30 students enrolled for its first year in existence.

The growing school enrollment put a strain on space in the school building and in the old church. In 1942 total school enrollment stood at 235. A new stone church, replacing the original wooden church, was built to provide more space and was dedicated by Bishop Adrian on Palm Sunday, 1942.

The comment was made at that time that "already all available space is taken up and to grow anymore we would have to build again." That comment indicated that the parish had added to and stabilized its membership after losing many members when a new parish for African Americans had been opened in South Memphis in 1937, an event that resulted in St. Anthony's losing about half of its 1937 members.

In 1917 when Father Glenn was still pastor, three of the converts to the Church were medical doctors. In their enthusiasm for their new faith they resolved to establish a Catholic hospital for African Americans dedicated to St. Anthony. In its first year it served over 300 African American patients. A little later with some funding assistance from the Knights of Columbus, St. Anthony's opened a training school to prepare young women for nursing and young men for blue collar jobs. The training school, while needed and successful for a short period, eventually went out of existence, as did the hospital, because of lack of funding in the 1920s.

In the 1950s great changes began to occur in St. Anthony's neighborhood which affected the parish. The high school was closed in 1956. A little later the land on which St. Anthony's was located was taken for the building of Interstate 40 and St. Jude Hospital. In 1961 the parish and its grade school moved to a location at Vollentine and Breedlove. Decreasing enrollment in the grade school, beginning steps toward integration, and the proximity of St. Therese Parish led to the closing of the school in 1967 followed by the closing of the parish in 1968.