Description

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 womens 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 sisterssuch 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 1965were pioneering religious leaders educators healthcare professionals desegregation foot soldiers Black Power activists and womanist theologians In the process Williams calls attention to Catholic womens religious life as a stronghold of white supremacy and racial segregationand thus an important battleground in the long African American freedom struggle