No Easy Layup for Catholic B-Ball League

C H I C A G O,  May 6 -- In one of America's most segregated cities, a celebrated attempt to have black and white grade-school children play in the same Catholic athletic league has ended on the sour notes of rancor and recrimination.

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On one level, the saga of St. Sabina Academy is a case study of how blacks and whites view the same facts in a dramatically racial different context. On another level, it is an example of how the prejudices of parents can stand in the way of children who want simply to play with each other.

In April, 2001, on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, Chicago's archbishop, Francis Cardinal George, sent a pastoral letter on race relations to all 378 parishes. In it, George lamented how racism had pervaded the church, and that, "in some cases" the community of faith became a private club."

Hearing ‘Code Words’ in Rejection

Just as Cardinal George was speaking out about race, the St. Sabina Academy — an all-black grade school on Chicago's south side — was petitioning to join the Southside Catholic Conference, an athletic league made up of 21 predominately white schools in the city and its southwestern suburbs.

St. Sabina's athletic director, Chris Mallette, said he simply wanted to give his teams a broader experience. "We had played white teams before and Latino teams, but we wanted to play, on a more consistent basis, kids with a different ethnic and social background," he said.

Mallette said he was told St. Sabina's admission to the conference, "was a done deal." But in May, 2001, the Southside Catholic Conference voted 11-to-9 to reject St. Sabina's entrance into the league.

League officials insisted the vote did not reflect racism but a fear of crime. Hank Lenzen, the conference executive director at the time, said he strongly supported St. Sabina's admission to the league, but those who opposed it , "were speaking very strongly about not allowing their wives and children to travel alone to the area, which was unknown."