16th Annual Rita Cassella Jones Lecture On Women and U.S. Catholicism

Tuesday, October 20, 2020 
6 p.m.
Zoom (link will be distributed upon registration)

The Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies present
In the Shadow of the Cross: Black Women and the Making of U.S. Catholicism

with Shannen Dee Williams, Ph.D., Albert LePage Assistant Professor of History, Villanova University

Contrary to popular belief, Black women and girls have never been inconsequential figures in the history of the U.S. Catholic Church. In this talk, Williams will trace the lives, labors, and struggles of Africa American Catholic women and girls from their earliest appearance in the historical record in 16th-century Spanish Florida to the present day. Drawing upon a host of previously ignored sources, including archival records and oral history, Williams will demonstrate why any narrative of the U.S. Catholic experience that marginalizes or ignores Black women and girls is woefully incomplete and perhaps even intentionally insincere.