Black and Catholic documents the exclusion, erasure, and systematic racism faced by Black Catholics, filling an essential gap in both Catholic and Black history. In the storied history of the U.S. Catholic community, there is a long-standing myth held by Catholics and non-Catholics alike that there are no Black Catholics. In this deeply researched and compelling book, Tia Noelle Pratt debunks this myth and brings forward the religious experiences and culture of Black Catholics, filling a void in the literature of both U.S. Catholicism and African American religion. She identifies the nature and ramifications of systemic racism on American Catholicism and how that marginalization impacts Black Catholic identity. Building on her extensive research, Pratt amplifies the voices and experiences of Black Catholics through original interviews and by sharing the story of St. Peter Claver, Philadelphia's first Black Catholic church. Black and Catholic also explores the ways that liturgy and music can build community, celebrate individuality, and resist racism. Black and Catholic is an essential book that centralizes the Black Catholic community, revealing the heartache of racism and discrimination, the comfort drawn from the strength of generations of believers, and the celebration from combining the music and traditions of African American religious experiences with the belief and rituals of Roman Catholicism.
Tia Noelle Pratt is assistant vice president and director of mission engagement and strategic initiatives in the Office for Mission and Ministry and assistant professor of sociology at Villanova University.
List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Black Faith, White Space - Understanding the African American Catholic Experience 2. The Numbers Don't Add Up - Systemic Racism and Its Legacy in Urban Catholic Life 3. Finding A Place At The Table - Liturgy as Identity Work and An Act of Resistance 4. Erasing a Legacy - The Price of St. Peter Claver 5. Race, Community, and Process - Black Catholics' Experience of Catholic Spaces 6. Losing Religion and Gaining Faith Appendix Works Cited Index
"Black and Catholic makes an invaluable contribution to scholarship on U.S. and African American Catholicism and the Catholic dimensions of white supremacy." -Shannen Dee Williams, author of Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle "This is an invaluable resource for anyone trying to understand Black Catholic experiences within our institutional church on Black Catholics' terms. It can serve as a tool for individuals and faith communities seeking to take up Pope Francis's invitation to decenter and transcend, in this case decenter whiteness and transcend white supremacy." -Maureen H. O'Connell, author of Undoing the Knots "Rooted in her own experience, the author lays bare the painful erasure of Black Catholics historically and systemic racism that continues to mark the institutional church today. Through adaptive liturgy, community, and deep faith, Black Catholics remake the church as their own and U.S. Catholicism as a rich repository of identity, resilience, and enduring witness-a story long overdue." -Tricia Colleen Bruce, author of Parish and Place
