BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRICAN AMERICAN " THE SISTERS OF SELMA " THEY WERE VERY VERY SUPPORTIVE DURING THE CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE :

                                    BLACK                   SOCIAL                 HISTORY                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         This historical article considers nursing’s work for social justice in the 1960s civil rights movement through the lens of religious sisters and brothers who advocated for racial equality. The article examines Catholic nurses’ work with African Americans in the mid-20th century that took place amid the prevailing social conditions of poverty and racial disempowerment, conditions that were linked to serious health consequences. Historical methodology is used within the framework of “bearing witness,” a term often used in relation to the civil rights movement and one the sisters themselves employed. Two situations involving nurses in the mid-20th century are examined: the civil rights movement in Selma, Alabama, and the actions for racial justice in Chicago, Illinois. The thoughts and actions of Catholic sister and brother nurses in the mid-20th century are chronicled, including those few sister nurses who stepped outside their ordinary roles in an attempt to change an unjust system entirely.

Keywords: civil rights, historical research, social justice

This article explores activists for social justice in the 1960s civil rights movement through the lens of Catholic nursing sisters and brothers who advocated for racial equality. What were the conditions that moved them to advocate for social justice and what were the conditions that did not? How did they make their voices heard? How did they balance the restrictions of their religious roles with their growing social consciousness of racial injustice? The article describes how the coming together of 2 epochal events, the civil rights movement and the Second Vatican Council, affected a sample of Catholic sisters’ and brothers’ work for social justice in Selma, Alabama, and Chicago, Illinois. Two patterns of activism for racial injustice are delineated in differing circumstances and by different religious orders: the few nurses who marched in the streets against racial discrimination to change the system, and the sisters and brothers who used their hospital work as a context to support social justice. At the same time, others opposed their work, including members of their own congregations.

The article adds to debates about nursing activism. The impression is often created