John LaFarge Jr. was an American Jesuit Catholic priest known for his activism against racism and anti-semitism. Involved in the heyday of Thomas Wyatt Turner's Federated Colored Catholics. LaFarge founded an offshoot, the Catholic Interracial Council in New York City. Branches also grew in Philadelphia and Chicago. In the run-up to World War II, he worked on a draft of a papal encyclical against racist and totalitarian ideologies for Pope Pius XI; entitled Humani generis unitas, though it was never promulgated due to the death of Pius XI on February 10, 1939.

Thomas Wyatt Turner was an American civil rights activist, biologist, and educator. He was the first Black American to receive a Ph.D. in botany, and helped found both the NAACP and the Federated Colored Catholics.