America’s Real Sister Act

The Hidden History of Black Catholic Nuns in the United States

Shannen Dee Williams

Saturday, February 11, 2023 9:30 a.m. – 12:00 Noon Suggested Donation: $25
Pre-registration for this in-person and online event is requested!

For most people, Whoopi Goldberg’s performance as Sister Mary Clarence in Sister Act is the dominant interpretation of an African American nun and the desegregation of white Catholic sisterhood in the United States. In this talk Dr. Williams will explore the story of America’s real sister act: the story of how generations of Black women and girls called to the sacred vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience fought against racism, sexism, and exclusion to become and minister as consecrated women of God in the Roman Catholic Church. In so doing, she will turn attention to women’s religious life as an important battleground in the long African American struggle for freedom, justice, and human dignity.

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 Struggle (2022).