John Joseph Egan

Monsignor John Joseph Egan (9 October 1916 – 19 May 2001) was an American Roman Catholic priest and social activist. After initially studying business at DePaul University, he transferred to Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary, completing his studies under the visionary rector Msgr. Reynold Henry Hillenbrand at the University of St. Mary of the Lake. He promoted racial integration and was one of the clergymen who marched with Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1965 protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. For many years he was a member of the board of trustees of the Industrial Areas Foundation. The Egan Urban Center at DePaul University is named in his honor. Egan's papers are housed in the manuscript collection at the University of Notre Dame Archives (see "Msgr. John Egan" or "John J. Egan Papers" at http://archives.nd.edu/collections/subjects.htm). The scope and background notes include an extensive list of his accomplishments.

John Joseph Egan figures prominently in the 2009 book Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America by Beryl Satter. WFMT critic Andrew Patner interviewed Ms. Satter in April 2009. This interview can be downloaded from http://feeds.feedburner.com/critical_thinking and specifically discusses her discovery of Monsignor John J. Egan and his work with the Contract Buyers' League starting at 44:40 in the downloadable MP3 file.

United Power for Action and Justice was created in part by Monsignor John J. Egan.

Further reading

• An Alley in Chicago: The Ministry of a City Priest (1991), by Margery Frisbie

NOTE: the University Archives at Notre Dame have created an online version of this book which is available at http://archives.nd.edu/findaids/html/etext/alleycon.htm

Persondata
Name	Egan, John Joseph
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	9 October 1916
Place of birth
Date of death	19 May 2001
Place of death