Book Review: “Subversive Habits”

Reading “Subversive Habits” delivered quite an enlightening and educational experience.

Author Shannen Dee Williams, Ph.D, opened my eyes and established my appreciation for the history of “Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle.”

Willams is associate professor of history at the University of Dayton. She is an award-winning scholar of the African American experience and Black Catholicism with a teaching specialization in the Black freedom movement history. She conducted 13 years of research to “capture the unheard voices of a large group of Black American churchwomen whose lives, labor and struggles have been systematically ignored, routinely dismissed as insignificant and too often reduced to myth.” 

And Williams, in “Subversive Habits,” utilizes the research to develop her voice of the voiceless and presents her story of the history of Black Catholic Nuns in the United States.

Prior to reading this book I took a few minutes to listen to a podcast interview with Williams conducted by the Bridgeport Diocese. This turned out to be quite useful as it gave me insight into Williams’ strong credentials, her personality, her intent for “Subversive Habits” and some of the key aspects of her story of Black Nun history. (the podcast can be accessed at youtube.com/watch?v=3EH9iBDZDtw).

“Subversive Habits” focuses primarily on the social, educational and political struggles Black nuns have faced in the U.S. from the nineteenth century to the present day. Williams has used race and gender as the key variables for analyzing the experiences of Black nuns and their struggles against abuse, discrimination and restrictive Church policies along the journey for justice, freedom and democracy in U.S. society.

Given my lack of knowledge for the many different acronyms associated with the various Catholic orders and organizations related to Black Catholic history, I found it helpful to have access to the “Abbreviations” section provided at the beginning of the book.

I also found it helpful that the book’s content is presented chronologically (which, for me seems common for many history books) and that each chapter title page included a relevant and interesting quote. 

However, I must say, that I initially underestimated the commitment of attention required for reading the amount of new historical detail presented and was tempted at times to skip over part of the content. The good news is that I pushed on into the second chapter with renewed commitment and continued on through the story shared in the remainder of the book. 

There are seven chapters in the book, each focused on a relevant perspective related to the nature of abuse, discrimination and resistance Black Catholic women faced while striving to fulfill their vocation and progress with their various change efforts.

Chapter 1, “Our Sole Wish is to Do the Will of God,” focused on “the nation’s pioneering Black sisterhoods and a small number of white congregations during slavery.” Chapter 6, “No Schools, No Churches,” related to the many efforts to save Black education in the 1970s, was somewhat overwhelming to read about the struggles of Black Catholic women striving for the creation of community-controlled schools.

While Williams seemed to achieve a fair balance between the negative, subversive habits Black Catholic nuns have faced and the positive changes that occurred, I must say reading the first six chapters was, at times, a little depressing.

However, reading Chapter 7, was uplifting. This chapter focuses on the period of the last quarter of the twentieth century and into the first decades of the twenty-first.

It covers the “continuing efforts of Black sisters for preserving African American female religious life and Black Catholic education, and provides a sense of hope for more progress in positive change toward justice for Black Catholics and a more complete framework for our Catholic Church and faith.”

In closing, I find it interesting and quite disappointing that over the long history of Catholicism in the U.S. there are no Black Catholic saints. However, there is good news! Despite the struggles along the path to freedom and justice described in “Subversive Habits,” there is progress toward changing this situation.

“There are currently six Black candidates (Augustus Tolton, Mary Lange, Mother Henriette DeLille, Sister Thea Bowman, Julia Greeley and Pierre Toussaint) in the canonization process.” (Black Catholic Messenger)

If you are like me, having little or no exposure to Black Catholic history and living with an incomplete understanding for your Catholic faith, I highly recommend this book.

John H. Dolezal is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.