Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • August 20, 2021 10 Kinley said now that he is primarily home- bound, the memories of the wonderful family at Holy Rosary still encourage him on his faith journey. “Recalling all these wonderful people in my daily prayers is one of the bonds that keeps me close to our Lord and His Holy Catholic Church. It is not unlike the bonds of family.” A special priest risks it all in leading fight for justice It was in the early 1930s that Bishop Gerow secured property in the city for the purpose of this mission church, which officially began in 1949 as Holy Rosary Mission, the first buildings being structures secured om the nearby Camp Shelby military base south of Hattiesburg. These became the church’s first church, rectory and parish hall. The effort to establish Holy Rosary Mission was spearheaded on the ground locally by Father Tom Megan, S.V.D., who accepted Bishop Gerow’s offer to be its founding pastor. Father Megan came to Hattiesburg after being forced to leave his work as a priest in China fol- lowing the upheaval om the country’s Communist Revolution. Father Megan fled one revolution in China and, in the process of coming to Hattiesburg to set up Holy Rosary, planted the seeds of another revolution. He established not only a house of worship where members of the parish grew in their faith and love for the Word, but also a home for those members of a community within a community working to secure their eedom, to shake loose the shackles of racial oppression fastened onto them in the era of Jim Crow, all while being guided by the Word of God through their association with their new home church. That revolution caught fire with the arrival of Father Peter Quinn in October 1966. As he became one of the city’s prominent advocates for civil rights, he put his life in danger while earning a place in the history of the community as a beloved advocate for the best of humanity and for the deep relationships he developed with Catholics and non-Catholics alike who also risked their lives seeking equality during the Civil Rights Movement. “Father Quinn was formidable, the right man for the right time,” Father Ken said. “He was Holy Rosary through and through, and everyone knew it, and he was acutely aware of the plight of the Aican-American community during the time of segregation. “He operated an incredible CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) that welcomed Catholics and non-Catholics to be part of the organization. He worked with other volunteers to help teach the kids how to register to vote and they in turn went home and taught their parents how to vote to keep them om being seen being taught how for fear of losing their jobs. That’s just phenom- enal.” Father Quinn equently received death threats om white supremacists and was even shot at while driving his own vehicle because of his work to help register Black voters and organize protests and picketing of businesses. The dem- onstrations included demands for the hiring of black police officers and firefighters in the city and for local white-owned businesses to hire more black employees. Father Quinn and his congregants also participated in and helped organize a march protesting the murder of local civil rights leader Vernon Dahmer. “The Klansmen told me they would blow me to kingdom come,” he said of one phone call in a 1999 oral history interview conducted by William Henderson for The University of Southern Mississippi Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage. Beyond the personal, members of Holy Rosary effected real social and moral change during the Civil Rights Movement under the leadership of Father Quinn, who had beiended Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Father Quinn pub- licly welcomed Dr. King to Hattiesburg in 1968 during his only visit to the city, just 10 days before he was felled by an assassin’s bullet in Memphis, Tennessee. During his visit, King asked Father Quinn if he could provide a place for him to take a brief nap prior to his planned address later that night at nearby Mount Zion Baptist Church. Father Quinn offered him respite at the Holy Rosary rectory. After King left for Jackson to take a flight out to his next destination, he realized on the way that he had left his wallet at the rectory. Father Quinn drove to Jackson to return the wal- let to King. It would be the last time the two would see each other. Days of sorrow, danger -- and hope Dr. King was assassinated about a week later, killed by a sniper’s bullet while standing on a second floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. “I was, and of course, we all were shocked to death, really, about it,” Father Quinn said of King’s tragic death, later in the same interview with Henderson. “And there was a lot of vio- lence; a lot of the kids wanted to be violent at that time. And all of them [community mem- bers, leaders] looked to me and said, ‘You calm them down, now. You calm them down.’ “And I was like, ‘Gee, how am I going to calm them down?’” Father Quinn understood the anger and grief of the Black community over the death of King; he was equally upset, but was determined that, in what he believed would be the wishes of his martyred iend, the march SEE HOLY ROSARY, PAGE 11 Holy Rosary om page 4 Holy Rosary pastor Father PeterQuinn stands in ont of the original Holy Rosary Chuch, which was dedicated by Bishop Gerow on Aug. 17, 1952. Photo/File Photo Father Quinn was appointed administrator of Holy Rosary Mission in October 1966. Photo/File Photo Holy Rosary provided a bench for bus passengers on Dabbs Avenue. Photo/File Photo