‘Subversive Habits’ Author Shannen Dee Williams Traces the History of Black Catholic Nuns

Screenshot from Dr. Williams’ presentation.

In 1966, when American sisterhood was at its peak, roughly 1,000 women of African descent were enrolled in religious life in the United States. Prior to 1946, women's religious orders were segregated, with Black women denied entrance into all-white orders (except those women who could pass as white). Even after religious orders were desegregated, Black women experienced discrimination in their majority-white orders and were frequently barred from participating in civil rights events and other efforts to organize for racial justice. Still, Black women religious were at the frontlines of the civil rights movement. They helped shape and define Catholic education. This history of Black Catholic nuns may be little known, but it’s an essential part of both American and American Catholic history.

Billed as the first history of Black Catholic nuns in the United States, Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle explores the ways in which Black girls and women used the sisterhood as a form of resistance. Dr. Shannen Dee Williams draws on both oral histories and archival research, including previously sealed church documents, to trace this history of resistance, rebellion, and spiritual and cultural formation.

On February 21, 2023, Dr. Williams read and discussed her book Subversive Habits and participated in an engaging and fruitful Q&A session. Watch Dr. Williams’ presentation and Q&A below.