The Sad Story of Mary Lilly Waldron, George African-Americana,Catholicism

The sensational account of Mary Lilly, a young black domestic servant in Baltimore who was physically and sexually abused by a number of Catholic priests from St. Barnabas Church, which was under the auspices of the Josephite Fathers, the Catholic society of priests who ministered to African Americans. According to the pamphlet, which is partially substantiated by contemporary newspaper accounts (primarily in the "Afro-American"), Mary s mother died in childbirth and she was raised in a Catholic orphanage. When she was a young girl she was sent to live with a Catholic priest as his servant and became pregnant by him. The baby died and for the next few years she continued working for a number of priests who all abused her sexually. In 1916 she was physically assaulted by Father William Niewenhoff who was indicted for assault, but who quickly disappeared. Then, in a custody dispute for her two children - one allegedly a mulatto - living at the St. Vincent de Paul Society, Mary alleged that she d been abused by Father Charles A. Evers, pastor of Saint Barnabas and a well-known Baltimore priest. Although Evers and his fellow priests accused Mary of lying, a blurb in the Afro-American newspaper states that Evers was "granted an indefinite leave of absence," and the story vanished from the press (The Afro-American, Sat., July 28, 1917, p. 7). Mary s story occupies the first ten pages of the pamphlet and includes newspaper accounts and her sworn affidavit and that of one of Evers housekeepers who describes all manner of debauchery occurring at this house. Incidentally, before the above incident came to light, Mary Lilly was also involved in challenging Baltimore racial-zoning ordinance - the first in the country - when, in October 1914, she and her live-in partner James Dorsey refused to move from their home at 12 S. Pine St., a majority white neighborhood. She vowed to challenge the law, but her case at least went to trial since we find a November 1915 court proceeding in which she was charged with "Violating Segregation Law" ("Baltimore Sun," Tues., Nov. 30, 1915, p. 13). A 1917 newspaper blurb finds her living at 426 N. Pine St., which was the year that the Supreme Court struck down racial-zoning laws (to give whites the legal right to sell their home to whoever they wanted). William Lloyd Clark founded the Rail Splitter Press as an anti-Catholic enterprise. He published books, pamphlets, and postcards, many of which are advertised in this pamphlet. Stapled, illustrated wrappers (7 ¼" x 5 ¼"), 32 pp., illus. Incredibly frage wrappers are darkened and chipped with a triangular piece missing from the top corner and the first two leaves (no text affected). Chipping and splitting along the spine, although wrappers still holding. We located only four physical copies in WorldCat.