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Shannen Dee Williams

Shannen Dee Williams is the Albert Lepage assistant professor of history at Villanova University. She is completing her first book, "Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle," under contract with Duke University Press.

Remembering the life of a beloved Black nun, leader and friend

January 3, 2022
By Shannen Dee Williams
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Commentary, Guest Commentary, Obituaries, Social Justice

2021 saw the passing of some of the nation’s most important leaders, thinkers, writers and freedom fighters of the modern era.

My Advent pilgrimage to the gravesite of Sister Thea Bowman

December 9, 2021
By Shannen Dee Williams
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Commentary, Guest Commentary, Racial Justice

In these trying times, one can only wonder what Sister Thea, an unapologetic champion of Black life, mothers, families and social equality, might say about the current state of our bitterly divided nation and church.

A song for Mother Tolton

March 18, 2021
By Shannen Dee Williams
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Commentary, Guest Commentary, Racial Justice

This March, as we celebrate Women’s History Month, let us pledge to rediscover and remember the lives and labors of the Black women, like Mother Tolton, who in the face of unyielding discrimination fought to make the church in the United States truly Catholic.

Names for public spaces matter

January 26, 2021
By Shannen Dee Williams
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Commentary, Guest Commentary, Racial Justice

As our nation and church continue to suffer the lethal effects of their ongoing failures to fully acknowledge and atone for centuries of slavery and segregation, the new Norman Francis Parkway is an important beacon of hope.

A final requiem for an extraordinary nun and champion of Black Catholic history

January 5, 2021
By Shannen Dee Williams
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Commentary, Guest Commentary, Racial Justice

In a racially and economically tumultuous year that saw a significant rise in calls for the church to acknowledge and make reparations for its largely unreconciled practices of slavery and segregation, the loss of Sister Reginald, and her expertise in African American Catholic history, was especially wrenching.

The black Catholic nun every American should know

March 9, 2020
By Shannen Dee Williams
Filed Under: Commentary, Guest Commentary

As we celebrate women’s history month this March, I encourage every person to commit the name of Anne Marie Becraft and her revolutionary fight against slavery and racism in the American Catholic Church and nation at large to memory.

Black history is Catholic history

February 6, 2020
By Shannen Dee Williams
Filed Under: Commentary, Guest Commentary

As we mark this 94th annual celebration of black history during February, I encourage all Catholics interested in justice, reconciliation and peace to commit to learning about the central place of black people in the church’s long and complex history.

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