John LaFarge, Jr.

John LaFarge Jr. (February 13, 1880 – November 24, 1963) was an American Jesuit Catholic priest known for his activism against racism and anti-semitism. Involved in the heyday (and eventual breakup) of Thomas Wyatt Turner's Federated Colored Catholics, LaFarge founded an offshoot, the Catholic Interracial Council in New York City. Branches also grew in Philadelphia and Chicago. In the run-up to World War II, he worked on a draft of a papal encyclical against racist and totalitarian ideologies for Pope Pius XI; entitled Humani generis unitas, though it was never promulgated due to the death of Pius XI on February 10, 1939.

Early life and education John LaFarge was born on February 13, 1880, in Newport, Rhode Island. He was the youngest son of the artist John La Farge (1835–1910), who was a descendant of French refugees, and his mother Margaret Mason Perry La Farge was a granddaughter of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry and a great-great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin. His siblings included Christopher Grant (who became an architect and partner in the firm of Heins & LaFarge), Emily Marie, John Louis Bancel, Margaret Angela, Oliver Hazard Perry (who also became an architect), Frances, and Joseph Raymond (who did not survive infancy).

LaFarge was gifted at music and languages, eventually becoming fluent in both French and German. At the age of 10, he edited The Sunlight, a monthly magazine put out by a group of his friends, one of whom had access to a hand printing press. LaFarge wrote a serialized science fiction story for the magazine under the title "Trip to Mars". These councils proliferated across America over the next two decades and in 1959, they merged into the National Catholic Conference on Interracial Justice. As LaFarge's reputation grew, he was given other visible and important offices. At various times, he was chaplain of the Society of the Catholic Laity, an officer of the Catholic Association for International Peace, vice-president of the American Catholic Historical Association, and chaplain of the Liturgical Society of Arts.

In 1947, LaFarge was invited to give the prestigious Dudleian lecture at Harvard; he chose for his topic "juridic wholeness," arguing that human rights must apply universally and not just to select groups.

Awards According to an article published in The Catholic Advocate on 4 February 1960, LaFarge received a number of awards from groups who endorsed his activities; the Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion, the Catholic Interracial Councils of New York, Chicago and St. Louis, the Liberty Medallion of the American Jewish Committee, the Social Justice Award of the National Religion and Labor Foundation, the World Brotherhood Award of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the 1955 Peace Award of the Catholic Association for International Peace.

Publications Reflections on Growing Old (1963) A Report on American Jesuits (with photographs by Margaret Bourke-White) (1956) Race Relations (1956) The Manner is Ordinary (1953, a memoir) The Race Question and the Negro (1943) Interracial Justice: A Study of the Catholic Doctrine of Race Relations (1937), archive.org