Claude Heithaus, SJ 1916 Media Center

Ignatian-Inspired Creator and Communicator

The Legacy of Fr. Heithaus Endures as Beacon of Gospel Values

One of the boys from the high school division of Saint Louis University (SLU) would go on to play an historic role in opening the school up to African Americans.

Claude Heithaus joined the Jesuits after graduating in 1916 from St. Louis University High (known then as Loyola Hall, one of three high schools at SLU). He studied anthropology at the University of London and eventually became a professor at SLU.

In 1943, the leadership at SLU fended off proponents of racial integration with calls for delay and careful attention to the desires (and prejudices) of white alumni and parents. Fr. Heithaus blasted through this moral ambivalence with an impassioned sermon denouncing racism and urging integration of the university. On February 11, 1944, at a student mass at St. Francis Xavier (College) Church, Fr. Heithaus took a stand for justice with words that were also published in the University News that same day.

“It is a surprising and rather bewildering fact, that in what concerns justice for the Negro, the Mohammedans and the atheists are more Christ-like than many Christians,” Fr. Heithaus said. “The followers of Mohammed and of Lenin make no distinction of color; but to some followers of Christ, the color of a man's skin makes all the difference in the world.”

Fr. Heithaus also shared his text with the local press, and it was published in Catholic newspapers around the country, though not in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. His stance had a tangible and speedy effect: SLU did admit five African Americans the following term, becoming the first university in the state to integrate, and the first university in a former slave state to do so.

That fall, however, Fr. Heithaus, faculty sponsor of the University News, refused to print a notice from the president of the university that black students would not be allowed to attend the prom. His disobedience resulted in his banishment from SLU for a number of years.

Fr. Heithaus was posthumously honored by St. Louis University High with the Backer Award in 2009.

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(Excerpt from the SLUH Bicentennial book To God with Gratitude, written by Frank Kovark ‘94.)