Conclusion
Prelates appointed by the Vatican before the 1940s were more reluctant or cautious than later episcopal appointments regarding desegregation. Now screened for their racial attitudes by the apostolic delegate and with more exposure to Mystical Body teachings, prelates appointed when the civil rights movement achieved increasing success faced a more pressing issue than their predecessors that they could less easily avoid, down play, or slow peddle. Secular change, federal financial imperatives, the American Catholic hierarchy’s endorsement of desegregation and the efforts of progressive African American and white laity in the South exerted a growing pressure on ordinaries to act, but desegregation mostly involved closing black Catholic institutions. Most southern white Catholics no longer publicly defended or supported segregation, but many did not embrace racial integration based on inclusiveness, reciprocity and mutual understanding. The Catholic Church desegregated its institutions, but, for the most part, it had not truly integrated them.