In the Shadow of Ebenezer - by Leah Mickens (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Uncovers how the Civil Rights Movement and Vatican II affected African American Catholics in Atlanta

The history and practices of African American Catholics has been vastly understudied, and Black Catholics are often written off as a fringe sector of the religious population. Yet, Catholics of African descent have been a part of Catholicism since the early days of European exploration into the New World.

In the Shadow of Ebenezer examines how the Civil Rights Movement and the Second Vatican Council affected African American Catholics in Atlanta, Georgia, focusing on the historic Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in the Old Fourth Ward. Our Lady of Lourdes is a neighbor of major historic Black Protestant churches in the city, including Ebenezer Baptist Church, a block away, which during the Civil Rights era was the pulpit of Martin Luther King Jr. Featuring archival and oral history sources, the book examines the religious and cultural life of the parishioners of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, showing how this Black Catholic congregation fit into the overall religious ecology of the neighborhood. Examining Our Lady of Lourdes in relation to these larger Black Protestant congregations helps to illuminate whether and how they were shaped by their place at a center of the civil rights struggle, and how religious change and social change intersect.

Review Quotes

""In the Shadow of Ebenezer is an important and elegant book. It adds much to an understudied field, and Mickens' discussion of Our Lady of Lourdes and the overarching historical movements affecting it are ingeniously woven, concretely illustrating the church's history and development.""-- "Reading Religion"

"Mickens reveals that Black Catholics not only have something to teach us about what it means to be Catholic in America but also show the complex role of Catholicism in the history of African American cultural life and Black resistance."-- "American Catholic Studies"

"Urgent and exciting. Mickens beautifully fills a huge gap in our knowledge of Black Catholicism."--Diana Hayes, Professor Emerita, Georgetown University

"Well-crafted studies of Black Catholic institutions are rare enough. To have such a study of a Black Catholic parish in Atlanta during the civil rights movement is an occasion for celebration."--John McGreevy, Charles and Jill Fischer Provost and Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History, Notre Dame University

About the Author

Leah Mickens is the August Wilson Project Archivist at the University of Pittsburgh. Mickens is the inaugural recipient of the Cyprian Davis, O.S.B. Prize, awarded by the University of Notre Dame's Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism.