Overview
In Subversive Habits, Shannen Dee Williams provides the first full history of Black Catholic nuns in the United States, hailing them as the forgotten prophets of Catholicism and democracy. Drawing on oral histories and previously sealed Church records, Williams demonstrates how master narratives of women's religious life and Catholic commitments to racial and gender justice fundamentally change when the lives and experiences of African American nuns are taken seriously. For Black Catholic women and girls, embracing the celibate religious state constituted a radical act of resistance to white supremacy and the sexual terrorism built into chattel slavery and segregation. Williams shows how Black sisters-such as Sister Mary Antona Ebo, who was the only Black member of the inaugural delegation of Catholic sisters to travel to Selma, Alabama, and join the Black voting rights marches of 1965-were pioneering religious leaders, educators, healthcare professionals, desegregation foot soldiers, Black Power activists, and womanist theologians. In the process, Williams calls attention to Catholic women's religious life as a stronghold of white supremacy and racial segregation-and thus an important battleground in the long African American freedom struggle.
Full Product Details
Author: Shannen Dee Williams
Publisher: Duke University Press
Imprint: Duke University Press
Weight: 0.748kg
ISBN: 9781478015574
ISBN 10: 1478015578
Pages: 424
Publication Date: 17 May 2022
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
Deeply researched, elegantly written, and boldly argued, Subversive Habits is a brilliant excavation of the long political history of Black nuns. This is extraordinary scholarship that is as accessible as it is groundbreaking and illuminating. This timely and essential book widens the frames of Black women's history, of religion and activism, and of Black Catholicism. -- Barbara D. Savage, author of * Your Spirits Walk beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion * Sweeping in its scope, exhaustively researched, and balanced in presentation,Subversive Habits is a seminal history of Black Catholic Nuns and their struggle for equality and justice in the Catholic Church. -- Bettye Collier-Thomas, author of * Jesus, Jobs, and Justice: African American Women and Religion * An awe-inspiring history book about Black nuns who fought for freedom and equality. . . . Subversive Habits is a stirring history text about the remarkable faith and conviction of Black nuns in America. -- Melissa Wuske * Foreword * (Starred Review) Informative and often surprising, this should be required reading for scholars of Catholic and African American religious history and will undoubtedly become the standard text on its subject. * Publishers Weekly * The 'uncommon faithfulness' of the nuns in Subversive Habits-taking the church at its word when it teaches that we are all one body-is a model of discipleship from which all Catholics can learn. -- Kathleen Manning * U.S. Catholic *
Deeply researched, elegantly written, and boldly argued, Subversive Habits is a brilliant excavation of the long political history of Black nuns. This is extraordinary scholarship that is as accessible as it is groundbreaking and illuminating. This timely and essential book widens the frames of Black women's history, of religion and activism, and of Black Catholicism. -- Barbara D. Savage, author of * Your Spirits Walk beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion * Sweeping in its scope, exhaustively researched, and balanced in presentation,Subversive Habits is a seminal history of Black Catholic Nuns and their struggle for equality and justice in the Catholic Church. -- Bettye Collier-Thomas, author of * Jesus, Jobs, and Justice: African American Women and Religion * An awe-inspiring history book about Black nuns who fought for freedom and equality. . . . Subversive Habits is a stirring history text about the remarkable faith and conviction of Black nuns in America. -- Melissa Wuske * Foreword *
Deeply researched, elegantly written, and boldly argued, Subversive Habits is a brilliant excavation of the long political history of Black nuns. This is extraordinary scholarship that is as accessible as it is groundbreaking and illuminating. This timely and essential book widens the frames of Black women's history, of religion and activism, and of Black Catholicism. -- Barbara D. Savage, author of * Your Spirits Walk Beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion * Sweeping in its scope, exhaustively researched, and balanced in presentation,Subversive Habits is a seminal history of Black Catholic Nuns and their struggle for equality and justice in the Catholic Church. -- Bettye Collier-Thomas, author of * Jesus, Jobs, and Justice: African American Women and Religion *
Author Information
Shannen Dee Williams is Associate Professor of History at the University of Dayton.
