Sisters in the Struggle: Black Catholic Nuns for Black Liberation

Looking at Catholic history and Black history becomes wildly different when you consider and acknowledge Black nuns. Not only have there been Black nuns since the early days of slavery, these women have been agitating and advocating all the while. It is a history that hasn't gotten the benefit of a full survey until now, with the book Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle by my guest Dr. Shannen Dee Williams.

Black nuns provided some of the earliest schools for both free and enslaved Black children. They wielded celibacy as a weapon of bodily autonomy. And, for decades before Brown v Board, they desegregated Catholic schools and Catholic orders. It was a fight within the Church, until the Civil Rights Movement. Then, Black nuns became the visible vanguard of freedom that they still are today.

I didn't know about Black nuns, and now I know that their history matters.

Music Credit

PeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)