“Deeply researched, elegantly written, and boldly argued, Subversive Habits is a brilliant excavation of the long political history of Black nuns. This is extraordinary scholarship that is as accessible as it is groundbreaking and illuminating. This timely and essential book widens the frames of Black women’s history, of religion and activism, and of Black Catholicism.” - Barbara D. Savage, author of Your Spirits Walk beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion
“Sweeping in its scope, exhaustively researched, and balanced in presentation,Subversive Habits is a seminal history of Black Catholic Nuns and their struggle for equality and justice in the Catholic Church.” - Bettye Collier-Thomas, author of Jesus, Jobs, and Justice: African American Women and Religion
"An awe-inspiring history book about Black nuns who fought for freedom and equality. . . . Subversive Habits is a stirring history text about the remarkable faith and conviction of Black nuns in America." - Melissa Wuske, Foreword
(Starred Review) "Informative and often surprising, this should be required reading for scholars of Catholic and African American religious history and will undoubtedly become the standard text on its subject." - Publishers Weekly
"The 'uncommon faithfulness' of the nuns in Subversive Habits—taking the church at its word when it teaches that we are all one body—is a model of discipleship from which all Catholics can learn." - Kathleen Manning, U.S. Catholic
"Shannen Williams's book chronicles the bold steps and persistence African-American sisters took to debunk their rejection by white orders that insisted Black women lacked souls and/or virtue suitable to be admitted to them. . . . This outstanding book, Subversive Habits, is well-researched, quite revealing and a set of history and reality lessons of how Black sisters kept the faith and made the Catholic Church change." - Ralph E. Moore, Jr., The AFRO
"This eye-opening, inspiring and thoroughly researched book unearths a history that few Americans know: the challenges and triumphs of Black Catholic nuns in the United States. It’s one of the most exciting new books in Black women’s history and powerfully captures the interconnections between race, religion and politics." - Keisha Blain, Politico
"Subversive Habits demands a committed reader. However, it will reward the resilient and open-minded reader with apokalupsis—tremendous learning about the scope of racism throughout the American Catholic Church as well as the witness of these Black Catholic women and their contributions to the church and the world. Please take up the reading and stick with it. Draw some perseverance from the women the book depicts and take heart in their commitment to justice." - Kevin Spinale, America
"Subversive Habits brings a very necessary balance to histories published in recent decades that focus on civil rights work by Catholics. It seems these historians were writing about the exception and not the norm. This is the story of courageous nuns, including those who felt they couldn't remain any longer, who are the true gems of American Catholic history. Every woman religious must read this book." - Laura Swan, Magistra
"In Subversive Habits, historian Williams has given us a remarkable work of scholarship, one that may be distressing for many readers because she clears away any shred of doubt about the U.S. Catholic Church being racist from its very beginnings." - Kathleen Finley, The Tablet
"I have never read a more thoughtful account of the Black Catholic experience than Shannen Dee Williams’ Subversive Habits. Williams’ book is a revelatory history of the experiences of Black religious women in understanding race, faith, and change in the Catholic church from the antebellum period through the various waves of civil-rights struggle to the contemporary era." - Marcia Chatelain, Chronicle of Higher Education
"Meticulously researched and fully supported by use of archival material, primary sources and interviews. . . . The book can be a gripping read, as Williams tells the stories so many Black sisters had kept to themselves for too long. It offers especially inspiring insights into their lives. . . ." - Mike Mastromatteo, The Dialog
"The painful and inexcusable story of white racism in the context of religious orders is just beginning to be written. This volume is a welcome contribution. It serves as a cautionary tale for the whole Roman Catholic Church. White racists now have no excuse for perpetrating the injustice for another generation." - WATER
"Williams seeks to tell the story of these women and of the Black and majority white sisterhoods in which they participated. The account is well documented, and Williams includes a look at the current departures of Black sisters from religious life and considers the likely future of Black female religious communities. Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty, and professionals."
- L. H. Hoyle, Choice
"I rate this book a 5.0/5.0 and is a must-read for anyone wanting to learn more about the part of the Church’s history that has largely been ignored and more often erased. You’ll gain an appreciation for these Black women and their faithfulness." - Archuleta Chisolm, Black Girl Nerds
"Williams's book is the go-to work on Black women religious in the United States during and in the afterlife of slavery. Future scholars, practitioners, and interlocutors are indebted to this brilliant author for the treasure trove she has gifted us." - Ahmad Greene-Hayes, Journal of Southern History
“By further positioning the advocacy of Black Catholic sisters within the national Black Freedom Struggle, Williams’s work is pivotal to understanding the overlooked role of Black Catholics in national movements for racial justice.” - Kelly L. Schmidt, Journal of African American History
"Williams captures both the struggles and the perseverance of these brave religious women whose faith testified to Christ’s love during the tumultuous 1960s in the Catholic Church and American society. . . . Williams accomplishes this overdue celebration through her erudition and grace-filled prose." - Chrysostom Christie-Searles, American Benedictine
"Without question, Shannen Dee Williams’s Subversive Habits is one of the most provocative accounts of the Black Catholic experience I have ever read. . . . In addition to weaving together a captivating narrative, Williams’s Subversive Habits is an excellent interdisciplinary text that seamlessly encompasses a variety of disciplinary fields—religious studies, African American studies, U.S. women’s history, Catholic studies, and gender studies—that can and should be read by the largest possible audience." - Juan Marcial Floyd-Thomas, Journal of American History
"This book is a crucial read for anyone interested in Black history, US history, and US Catholic history. Indeed, Williams makes substantive contributions to all three fields, as she succeeds in telling stories of Black nuns that have been hidden, highlighting Black nuns’ long-term resistance to white supremacy, as well as recasting the history of US Catholicism as rooted in white supremacy. This is a vital history for scholars working in these fields. . . ." - Danae Jacobson, Journal of Church and State
"Subversive Habits is like an ice water facial. It can wake us up, sharpen our awareness, and prepare us for the crucial journey to which Williams beckons us. . . . Her research is timely, capturing the voices and stories of Black sisters while they are still with us. Generations of scholars will be in her debt." - Debra Campbell, Church History
"Subversive Habits is an extraordinarily comprehensive history of Black Catholic female religious life in America. It testifies to Williams’ argument that the book is also a history of the American Catholic Church and of the country’s struggle for racial justice – the actions of Black sisters are central to either narrative." - Hyla Maddalena, Journal of Gender Studies
"This dense but information-filled book will be a valuable reference for scholars, church leaders, women and men religious, and those interested in Black racial justice and equality." - Vien V. Nguyen, Review for Religious
"Williams provides an essential text for conversations about race, gender and religion in American history. Scholars in sociology, theology, political theory and feminism should also take note of Williams’s research. . . . Subversive Habits alters the landscape of American religious studies and Catholic studies. . . . Williams breathes life into a tragic and forgotten past through stories of resilient sacri?ces, lessons of love from the dead and the living." - Paul G. Monson, Journal of Ecclesiastical History
"No readers of this book, Catholic or non-Catholic, Black or white, will come away without a feeling of gratitude that they have learned of the life experiences and contributions of Becraft, DeLille, Ebo and Bowman and the many other Black nuns whose lives might otherwise be easily forgotten. Subversive Habits is an important part of new paradigms in the scholarly study of American Catholicism, paradigms that represent a shift away from a narrow focus on European immigrant experiences, and away from a blithe disregard for the centrality of race in the history of America." - James W. Laine, Religion
"Williams successfully challenges the existing American Catholic narrative, and her book should be required reading for American Catholics in the parish, schools and larger Catholic community. It would make an excellent addition to any women’s and religious history syllabi at the college level as well." - Mary Beth Fraser Connolly, English Historical Review
"Williams lays bare the racism of the Catholic Church and white nuns, in particular, as it centers the story of the Black women who persevered in their quest for inclusion and recognition. . . . The story Williams tells is crucial to any understanding of the Catholic Church, the Civil Rights Movement, and broader American history." - Susan Ridgely, Journal of Religion
