HR151INTRODUCED
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HR151
BYHTAQJ-1
By Representative Hall
RFD:
First Read: 18-Mar-25
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5 BYHTAQJ-1 03/12/2025 evp (L)evp 2025-1218
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First Read: 18-Mar-25
HR____ COMMENDING DR. SHANNEN DEE WILLIAMS FOR PROFESSIONAL
ACHIEVEMENTS AND LASTING IMPACT ON AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY
PERTAINING TO WOMEN AND RELIGION.
WHEREAS, with great pleasure and pride, highest
commendations are conveyed to Dr. Shannen Dee Williams for
her professional achievements and lasting impact on African
American History, particularly in regard to women and
religion; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Williams earned her Bachelor of Arts in
History with magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa honors from
Agnes Scott College; a Master of Arts in Afro-American
Studies from the University of Wisconsin at Madison; and a
Doctor of Philosophy in History from Rutgers University; she
is a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American
Historians and an Associate Professor of History at the
University of Dayton; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Williams' research on the African
American experience, with specializations in women's,
religious, and Black freedom movement history, has been
supported by a host of grants and fellowships, including a
Scholar-in-Residence Fellowship at the Schomburg Center for
Research in Black Culture, a Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral
Fellowship in Religion and Ethics from the Woodrow Wilson
National Foundation, an Albert J. Beveridge Grant from the
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National Foundation, an Albert J. Beveridge Grant from the
American Historical Association, and the John Tracy Ellis
Dissertation Award from the American Catholic Historical
Association; her work has been published in the Journal of
African American History, American Catholic Studies, The
Washington Post, America Magazine, U.S. Catholic, and the
National Catholic Reporter; she penned the award-winning
column, "The Griot's Cross" in the Catholic News Service
from 2020 to 2022; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Williams authored Subversive Habits:
Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom
Struggle, which was named a top five book published in
religion by Publisher's Weekly; received the 2022 Letitia
Woods Brown Award for Best Book in African American Women's
History from the Association of Black Women Historians; and
the 2023 Wesley-Logan Prize for Outstanding Book in African
Diaspora History from the American Historical Association
and the Association for the Study of African American Life
and History; and
WHEREAS, a lifelong Catholic, Dr. Williams is the
first Black woman elected to the Executive Council of the
American Catholic Historical Association; she is a
co-founder of the Fleming-Morrow Endowment in African
American History at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville;
she successfully submitted proposals to establish the Mother
Mary Lange Lecture in Black Catholic History at Villanova
University and the Cyprian Davis, O.S.B., Prize through the
American Catholic Historical Association and the Cushwa
Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the
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Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the
University of Notre Dame; now therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA, That for her lasting impact on
African American history, particularly women's and religious
history, and for her notable professional accomplishments,
Dr. Shannen Dee Williams is highly commended, and this
resolution is offered to her as evidence of our high regard
with best wishes for continued success, blessings, and
prosperity.
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