Guide to the Charles Owen Rice Papers, 1894-2005 AIS.1976.11

Arrangement

Repository
ULS Archives & Special Collections
Title
Charles Owen Rice Papers
Creator
Rice, Charles Owen
Collection Number
AIS.1976.11
Extent
55.24 Linear Feet (51boxes, 4 oversize folders, 1 film)
Date
1894-2005
Abstract
Charles Owen Rice was a Roman Catholic priest who was active in the Pittsburgh community as well as national labor and civil rights movements. He was involved as a journalist, as director of the Catholic Radical Alliance of Pittsburgh, as one of the founders and first chairman of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists (ACTU), and as founder of St. Joseph's House of Hospitality (Pittsburgh). The collection includes correspondence, subject files, transcripts of radio broadcasts, manuscripts, case files, family papers, audiotapes, photographs and a film.
Language
English .
Author
Archives Service Center Staff. Revisions occurred to the finding aid as a part of the encoding process on October 12, 1999 and May 25, 2004. The collection was reprocessed by Ashley Taylor in October 2009.
Publisher
ULS Archives & Special Collections
Address
University of Pittsburgh Library System
Archives & Special Collections
Website: library.pitt.edu/archives-special-collections
Business Number: 412-648-3232 (Thomas) | 412-648-8190 (Hillman)
Contact Us: www.library.pitt.edu/ask-archivist
URL: http://library.pitt.edu/archives-special-collections

Biography

Msgr. Charles Owen Rice was born in New York City in 1908, the son of Irish immigrants. After his mother died when he was four, he and a brother were sent back to Ireland to be raised by an aging grandmother. By age 11, he returned to the states and was ordained into the priesthood in 1934 following studies at Duquesne University and St. Vincent Seminary, both in Pittsburgh. After ordination in 1934, he became involved with labor unions, often acting as an arbitrator. He was a leader in resisting the influence of the Communists in labor unions in the 1930s and 1940s. Partially in response to the Communist effort to control organized labor, Father Rice aided in founding the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists; he also served as its chaplain.

In 1937 Rice founded St. Joseph's House of Hospitality, giving shelter and food to homeless men in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. Labor, Communism, and St. Joseph's House were frequent topics on his weekly radio program which aired from 1937 to 1969. He and two older clergy also organized the Catholic Radical Alliance, which later became an important adjunct of the Catholic Worker movement in America. During World War II, Father Rice was appointed local rent director of the Hill District.

In 1952 Father Rice received a pastorate appointment in Natrona and later Washington, Pa., but continued his interests in labor. He walked picket lines with countless unions, protested steel plant shutdowns in the 1980s, and joined The Pittsburgh Press strikers in 1992. Although long interested in civil rights, his appointment to the predominantly African American parish of Holy Rosary in Pittsburgh's Homewood section kindled greater interest in the cause. He later became a critic of the Vietnam War. In his seven decades as a priest, Rice was pastor of numerous churches, including St. Joseph's in Natrona, Immaculate Conception in Washington, Pa., Holy Rosary in Homewood, and St. Ann's in Castle Shannon, Pa.

Father Rice passed away in 2005.

Arrangement

The collection is comprised of 12 series:

Series I. Subject Files

Series II. Correspondence

Series III. Radio Broadcasts

Series IV. Arbitration Cases

Series V. FBI Files

Series VI. Holy Rosary School

Series VII. Manuscripts and Publications

Series VIII. Autobiographical Material

Series IX. Family Papers

Series X. Photographs

Series XI. Audio Tapes

Scope and Content Notes

The Charles Owen Rice Papers include correspondence, subject files, transcripts of Rice's radio broadcasts, manuscripts of published and unpublished writings, arbitration case files, family papers, audio tapes, photographs, and a copy of the film Humble Greatness: The Life of Philip Murray, which he narrated. The collection also includes material relating to labor, labor associations, organizations, and societies, the labor union movement, industrial unionism, strikes, politics and government, social welfare, civil rights, prison reform, the peace movement, Vietnam War protests, draft resistance, Communism, Communist leadership, Communist influence in the labor movement, anticommunism, Association of Catholic Trade Unionists and the Pittsburgh Chapter, Catholic Radical Alliance of Pittsburgh, St. Joseph's House of Hospitality (Pittsburgh), Steel Workers Organizing Committee, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, and Philip Murray.

Access Restrictions

Individual Prisoners' Case Files, Correspondence, and other prisoner information from the Prison Society of Southwest Pennsylvania (Boxes 14-16) are closed until the prisoner's death, unless written permission is provided by the prisoner.

Accruals

Additional material was donated by Charles McCollester and Geraldine A. Mullooly in August 2006. In July 2011 Steve Rosswurm donated the files he obtained in 2009 as a result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request pertaining to FBI files.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Monsignor Charles Owen Rice in 1976 and 1989.

Previous Citation

Charles Owen Rice Papers, 1935-1998, AIS.1976.11, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh

Preferred Citation

Charles Owen Rice Papers, 1935-1998, AIS.1976.11, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Archives Service Center Staff in the late 1970s.

Revision and rearrangement for the encoded version of the finding aid provided by Kate Colligan on October 12, 1999 and Dan Horvath on May 25, 2004. Information about the collection title and the controlled access terms was extracted from the MARC record in the University of Pittsburgh catalog Voyager ID Number: 1384010.

The additional material donated in 2006 was inventoried and weeded down by an intern. The collection was reprocessed to include the added material by Ashley Taylor in October 2009.

Copyright

Permission for publication is given on behalf of the University of Pittsburgh as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Subjects

    Corporate Names

    • Association of Catholic Trade Unionists. Pittsburgh Chapter
    • Association of Catholic Trade Unionists

    Personal Names

    • Rice, Charles Owen
    • Murray, Philip

    Geographic Names

    • Pennsylvania -- Church history
    • Pittsburgh (Pa.) -- Politics and government
    • Pennsylvania -- Politics and government -- 1951-
    • Pittsburgh (Pa.) -- Religion
    • Pennsylvania -- Politics and government -- 1865-1950
    • Pittsburgh (Pa.) -- Church history

    Genres

    • Transcripts

    Other Subjects

    • Labor -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Arbitration, Industrial -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Steel industry and trade -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Propaganda, Anti-communist -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Draft resisters -- United States
    • Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Protest movements
    • Peace movements -- United States
    • Civil rights -- United States
    • Charities -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Strikes and lockouts -- Steel industry and trade -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Electric industry workers -- Labor unions -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Education
    • Iron and steel workers -- Labor unions -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Social action
    • Labor movement -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Societies
    • Prisons -- United States
    • Personal papers
    • Labor
    • Steel industry and trade -- Pennsylvania
    • Catholic Church -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh -- Clergy
    • Charitable uses, trusts, and foundations -- Pennsylvania
    • Societies -- Pennsylvania
    • Societies -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Clergy -- Pennsylvania
    • Labor leaders -- Pennsylvania
    • Journalists -- Pennsylvania
    • Priests

Container List