Be On Time and Be Prepared to Work!

Tim King, former CEO of Hales Franciscan and founder and CEO of Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men-Englewood Campus set to open in fall 2006, states in a Chicago Tribune op-ed piece (May2, 2006) that 'It's time to set a new dinner table.' King , who left Hales Franciscan for ventures in philanthropy education and now Charter Education, wants African American fathers to sit down with their sons and 'show them an alternate future, one that includes hard work, being accountable and going to college.' He warns, 'Until we embrace this responsibility, they (African American Young Men) will continue to fail and so will we.' Riffing on this third and most important topic, the need to provide great black male role models for young men, King's dualism bashes 'bling with books; rims with reading; and chillin' with college.' King echoes what Hales Franciscan has argued since 1961 and Leo High School has been teaching since 1926. But allow me to articulate the core of the message.

Tim King stated earlier in his essay that he had learned the value of education at the dinner table from his entrepreneur father, lawyer uncle, and Georgetown University graduate older brother. Tim King went to Georgetown, law school, and started his own business. He'll be a great role model for the young men of Urban Prep Charter in Englewood. He has lived the lesson.I have helped provide funding for Leo High School for the last eleven years. Leo High School, like Hales Franciscan is a Catholic college prep serving African American young men. I am not black; I am Irish American and so is my boss Bob Foster, Leo's President. Bob has been serving Leo High School as Principal and President since 1991 and has devoted most of his forty-four years in education to the boys at Leo. Like Bob Foster, I was a teacher and also the first member of my family to go to college. My County Kerry - born Grandfather and founder of the Engineer's Union always told me that I had better go to college or I'd starve to death. He was slighting my practical labor skills more than working on my self-esteem. Bob Foster's father and all of his older brothers were Chicago Police Officers. He too was the first in his family to finish college.

My dad was a blue color worker with three jobs, who had gone to war instead of college. In fact only one of my seven uncles went to college and only completed his degree before his death from cancer at 43 years of age. Like Tim King, our dinner conversation revolved around the subject of school, hard work, and meeting my responsibilities. The topic of college hung out in the ozone as a possibility merited by hard work, good luck, and God's intervention. Most important was the subject of responsibility - be on time and be prepared to work.College Preparatory means just that - prepare for for college. Leo High School, like Hales Franciscan, has a remarkable record of sending young men on to some of the best colleges and universities in America. The lessons taught at Leo High School are these - be on time and be prepared to work.

One young man, a 2000, graduate was accepted at six major universities: University of Illinois offered him the full-boat. Though a great athlete, this young Leo Man merited an Academic scholarship. Forsaking all offers of a college career for now, this Leo grad chose to apply for the Pipefitters Apprenticeship Program and was accepted. Unlike me, this young man had the aptitude for success in the trade, as well as books smarts. Not only that, this young man had an aptitude for meeting his responsibilities. The Director of the Apprenticeship Program, John Lean, reported to me that 'our guy' not only attended all of the required classes but showed up at the Pipefitters school on his days off - to bone - up on welding techniques.Once in the trade and in the field, the poor guy was pulled this way and that way by contractors and superintendents wanting his skills, work ethic, and unfailing dedication. This black young man is making a great deal of money and enjoying a wealth of respect. He was prepared for college, but he excelled as a man.

I sit at the kitchen table with my son. We talk about his classes and his work in school. We talk about what is really important in life - be on time and be prepared to work. My son might go to college, but I pray that he is prepared to be a man. Hales Franciscan and Leo High School are two pretty good schools. They are Catholic schools, but most of the young men attending both are not necessarily Catholic themselves; they are all African American and they are all taught - be on time and be prepared to work.
posted by Pat Hickey @ 7:09 AM 0 comments

Leo High School Continues the Mission of Edmund Rice

Irish Americans and African Americans have had a confrontational experience in America from the time of the Great Hunger and the Enslavement of Black Americans for economic gain; peaking in the the summer of 1863, when the New York Irish rioted against the Draft and victimized freed Blacks who took refuge there; again in the Labor unrest of the 1870's, 80's, & 90's when African Americans were exploited by American industry with the lure of jobs to replace immigrant workforces in Chicago, Kansas City, and New Orleans; through the Jim Crow decades of the 20th century, the Civil Rights Movement, and today's Urban Turmoil. Suspicion and violence have often hallmarked relations between African Americans and Irish Americans. However, history has given both groups much to consider when lending a cold eye to this tension. In his 1999 article for the News Observer, Brad Roger wrote, " While black Americans were held in the bonds of slavery, Catholics in Ireland were being repressed by the British government and persecuted because of their religion, Dooley said.
Advocates for an end to slavery, such as the influential abolitionist Frederick Douglas, traveled to Ireland to speak about the struggle for justice in America and to see firsthand the trials of Irish peasants.
Douglas met with Irish nationalist leaders like Daniel O'Connell and spoke at a rally in Cork that drew a crowd of 5,000 . . ." Likewise Roman Catholic priests, like Chicago's Msgr.. Jack Egan and Father Dan Mallette marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King demanded equal justice under the law for all Americans.

Nevertheless, the cinders of the Chicago Meatpackers Strike of 1904 and the subsequent Race Riots of 1919 continued to glow the with the rhetoric of race baiters of both sets of Americans. Leo High School on the south side of Chicago offers a look at a spirit of cooperation and mutual respect that has escaped the attention of the media. At this inner city high school, a largely Irish American Alumni support an all African American students body with financial, moral, vocational, and corporeal support. Six generations of white Catholic Alumni are primary support for this inner city high school. Without Archdiocesan support, no Black philanthropic or corporate support, less than 1% African American Alumni support, the young men from some of Chicago's poorest and most violent neighborhoods would have no hope for college. The Irish Catholic is not always a violently inclined racist.
The Leo High School story gives the lie to that popular misconception.

In 1921, Cardinal George Mundelein invited the Irish Christian Brothers of New York to come to Chicago and operate a central Catholic high school for boys on the south side of Chicago. With the massive St. Leo the Great Parish as the sponsoring entity this central high school would serve Catholic families in the largely Irish Auburn Highlands neighborhood.The Carmelites operated Mount Carmel High School in Hyde Park; the Augustinians, St. Rita in the Marquette Park area and French Christian Brothers, DeLaSalle in Bridgeport. The southwest side of Chicago, commonly referred to as the Bungalow Belt after the new uniquely Chicago style homes that were providing homes for lower-middle class families, had grown so enormously that a central high school for boys was needed.This area of Chicago was home to tradesmen, clerks, dairymen, motormen, policemen, and firemen.

The area was so heavily Irish that it was refered to by many as the Kerry Patch ( roughly 77th -87th Streets between State Street and Ashland Ave. There was heavy industry along the railroad lines that cut through the neighborhoods between 75th & 71st Streets - refractories, steel fabricators, tile-yards, smelting works, canning and manufacturing plants lines made access to Loop office jobs for white collar workers, especially the hundreds of municipal and county employees seeking residence away from the stench and clautrophobic nature of many of the Back-Of-The Yards housing realities. This neighborhood was the stepping stone to middle-class living for the immigrant Irish, as well as the second, third, and fourth generation Irish Americans. That school would be named, not for St. Leo the Great, but for the Pope of the Workingman - Leo XIII - Leo High School.

Leo High School was opened on September 9th, 1926 to a freshman class and the boys were welcomed by Irish Christian Brothers Doorley, Grangel, Filehne, and Hamill. Soon, Leo carved a name for fielding great athletic teams under Coach Ike Mahoney, a lawyer and former Chicago Cardinal Football Player. Playing home games at Shewbridge Field, named for Pastor Msgr. Peter F. Shewbridge, the man who raised the money for Leo High School, the Leo Fighting Irish became the Lions after their first year. The Leo Lions became synonymous with Chicago Catholic League Football and Basketball - winning four City Championships in Football and the National Catholic Title in Basketball in 1945. Leo football played in the largest attended football game in history at Chicago's Soldier Field: 125,000 persons attended. Leo lost to Austin 26-0.

The south side Irish school produced do-ers. Men who would go on to become some of the most important participants in American life:

Cpl.John Fardy '40 USMC - Congressional Medal of Honor (post.)

Cpl. Joseph Auman '40 USMC - Navy Cross (post.)

Sgt. Thomas Stack '61 USA - Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart

Thomas Aquinas Murphy '31 - CEO of General Motors

Lt. General Thomas Patrick Gerrity '30- USAF

Lt. General James Callaghan'55 - USAF

Lt. General George Muellner '61- USAF

Adm. William Newman '58- USN

Asst. Secrertary of Commerce - Robert Podesta '30

Secret Service Agent Tim McCarthy '67- The man who saved President Reagan

Andrew J. McKenna '47 - Chairman McDonalds Corporation & University of Notre Dame Chairman of theBoard of Directors

Frank Considine '39 - Chairman American National Can Corporation

Justice Thomas Fitzgerald '59 - Illinois Supreme Court

James T. Joyce '60 - Chicago Fire Commissioner

James Molloy '69 - Deputy Superintendent Chicago Police Department

To name a few.

The Auburn Gresham Community has been 100% African American since the 1980's and Leo High School has been 100% African American since 1990. In 1991, The Congregation of Christian Brothers, formerly the Irish Christian Brothers ended their long association with Leo High School. It seemed to be the death knell for the once great Irish school.No longer sponsored by a religious order, white Catholic families opted to send their sons to other schools with a tangible Catholic identity. Leo High School became all African American.

A white Irish Catholic Leo Alumnus, Bob Foster '58, became the first lay Principal of Leo high school. Foster reached out to the successful white Catholic Alumni for support as the Congregation of Christian Brothers left the school in debt and had performed no capital improvements in forty years. It seemed that the school would close: The Catholic Superintendant of Schools gave Foster a year and his accountants less than that. Foster a stand-out Guard at Purdue in the late 1950's and a Mick from the Tile Yards on Lowe Street does not budge when pushed and neither do his fellow Leo Men.

The Alumni stepped up and continue to do so. They have taken on the mission of Edmund Rice. Where there are no Christian Brothers present at Leo today, the founding spirit of the Congregation carries on through the Leo Alumni. Individuals and groups of Leo Alumni sponsor students. White Leo graduates mentor young African American Leo men and direct their steps toward University of Notre Dame, DePaul, Loyola, Purdue, and University of Chicago. Leo graduates from the 40's, 50's, 60's 70's and 1980's, whose own sons attended high schools with religious orders directing them, attend Leo sporting events.

No longer sponsored by a religious order, white Catholic families opted to send their sons to other schools with a tangible Catholic identity. Leo High School became all African American.A white Leo Alumnus, Bob Foster '58, became the first lay Principal of Leo high school. Foster reached out to the successful white Catholic Alumni for support as the Congregation of Christian Brothers left the school in debt and had performed no capital improvements in forty years. It seemed that the school would close: The Catholic Superintendant of Schools gave Foster a year and his accountants less than that.The Alumni stepped up and continue to do so. They have taken on the mission of Edmund Rice. Where there are no Christian Brothers present at Leo today, the founding spirit of the Congregation carries on through the Leo Alumni. Individuals and groups of Leo Alumni sponsor students. White Leo graduates mentor young African American Leo men and direct their steps toward University of Notre Dame, DePaul, Loyola, Purdue, and University of Chicago. Leo graduates from the 40's, 50's, 60's 70's and 1980's, whose own sons attended high schools with religious orders directing them, attend Leo sporting and academic events. They are viewed by the African American Leo Men as Big Brothers and the elder statesmen of the school's traditions.

Since 1991, Foster has maintained enrollment at 300, eliminated all debts, invested more than 1.5 million dollars, sent 93% of Leo graduates on to colleges and universities; expanded the campus for the first time in 50 years; won Five State of Illinois Class A & AA Track Championships; the 2004 Class A Basketball Title; earned many awards and distinctions and became the focus of a book published in August 2005: Every Heart and Hand: A Leo High School Story.

This is the greatest story never told. The guys who attended Leo High School are too busy doing ,to have time to do any telling. The story of the support for a school that everyone but Leo Men predicted would close or should be closed is a great Chicago story, a great Catholic story, a great human story, and a real American story. Not having graduated from Leo High School, I am free to make a big deal of what goes on at 79th & Sangamon on the south side of Chicago.

Leo High School is situated in an African American neighborhood, Auburn Gresham, but receives no active support from the black community beyond black graduates of this school. Generations of white Catholic men actively support a school that they attended, in order to help young black, mostly non-Catholic young men. None of their grand children or sons attend Leo, but they actively invest hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. These same supporters have been cast as ‘white flight bigots’ by academics, journalists, and even some religious. Mopes that hurl that charge go unanswered too often. Our people support Leo out of love for their fellow man – the same motivation that built the Catholic Church in Chicago. Without the support of Leo’s Alumni, white and black, thousands of young men would not have the opportunity to succeed beyond the streets.

Since 1991, 93% of all Leo graduates have gone on to Purdue, University of Chicago, Boston College, West Point, Northwestern, Loyola, DePaul, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State to name a few. Others like Lonnie Newman ’02, deferred college scholarships for the trades. Lonnie Newman, Class Valedictorian turned down six scholarships to join Pipe-fitters Local 597. No student is turned away from Leo High School – most students score below the 40th percentile on the entrance exam, but after four years of hard work and commitment go on to some of the best schools in America. Most of all, their tuition is supported by the Leo Alumni, because Lonnie Newman’s story is familiar to them.

You won’t hear about Leo on Oprah or read about it in Chicago Magazine. It is not a story for the slick or the showy. Leo people tend to sit in the back pews, even though they could stroll to the roped off section. They give away the fifty-yard line tickets and watch the game at home. They go to bat for a young man who needs a door opened for him. They live by deeds, not words: courage and commitment.

Leo High School operates on tuition, grants from private foundations and Alumni support. Since 1991, The Leo Alumni have provided more than 5 million dollars. Less than 1% of support for Leo comes from Black Alumni and no dollars from African American philanthropy. The Irish are still very much active in Auburn Gresham community. The Irish no longer live in the neighborhood, but they see to it that the young men, who do, have a school that will help them succeed - as they did.

Welcome to Every Heart and Hand

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Every Heart and Handby Pat Hickey

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Paperback: 160 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.37 x 9.00 x 6.00
Publisher: Authorhouse; (August 2005)
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WoodSt. "Pat" (Chicago) - See all my reviews In a very few pages, the author identifies Catholic values, learned in the local parish and re-inforced through Catholic high schools, that motivates some very generous people. Leo High School is, today, an all African American high school for boys on Chicago's south side, but had been the forming ground for many successful white Catholic men. The majority of today's Leo students are non-Catholic, but their school is funded almost exclusively by white Catholic men. This is a great study of the human heart at its best. Was this review helpful to you?