Lecture: In the Shadow of the Cross: Black Women and the Making of American Catholicism

Lecture: In the Shadow of the Cross: Black Women and the Making of American Catholicism

Come join us for an enlightening lecture on the role of Black women in shaping American Catholicism. Black women, religious and lay, are overlooked prophets of American Catholicism, especially the traditions free from the most destructive aspects of white supremacy. This talk will chart the epic journey of Black women in the American Catholic Church, paying particular attention to the Afro-feminine foundations of American Catholicism, the monumental barriers broken by Black Catholic women and girls in secular and spiritual arenas, and the transformative promises of Black Catholic women’s history.

Dr. Shannen Dee Williams is Associate Professor of History at the University of Dayton. She is the author of Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle (Duke University Press, 2022), which was named a top five book published in religion by Publishers’ Weekly in 2022. Subversive Habits also received the 2022 Letitia Woods Brown Award for Best Book in African American Women’s History from the Association of Black Women Historians and the 2023 Wesley-Logan Prize for Outstanding Book in African Diaspora History from the American Historical Association and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. A Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians, Dr. Williams authored the award-winning column, “The Griot’s Cross,” published by the Catholic News Service from 2020 to 2022.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Edgerton Center for the Performing Arts, 5151 Park Avenue, Fairfield, United States