'Our Lady of Victory: The Saga of an African-American Catholic Community'

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DETROIT, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- "Where are all the black Catholics?" That was
Shirley Harris-Slaughter's question when she began researching an historical
account for her book "Our Lady of Victory: The Saga of an African-American
Catholic Community" (published by iUniverse -- http://www.iuniverse.com).
Watching the number of churches and schools closing in the Detroit area, the
author decided to let the community know what one particular church had been
doing prior to its demise as a record of history.

"Our Lady of Victory" is a study in black history, one that the author lived,
one that she watched as the once-flourishing church began to lose its
identity. What the author discovered was that the Catholic Church was built
along racial lines. Blacks left the church because the archdiocese staffed
them with missionary priests who eventually left the region. What usually
followed was that the churches were handed back over to the diocese and
ultimately closed because the diocese would not staff them with white priests.
In turn, this devastated the Detroit area economically and spiritually when
whites moved out in large numbers to keep their own ethnic identity intact and
blacks lost their houses of worship.

Shirley Harris-Slaughter is concerned that blacks do not know their history
and believes in order to move forward it is important to know the past. "Our
Lady of Victory" offers an explanation of why the black Catholic Church is
losing ground in Detroit, which means that the Church in general is in
trouble. Having spearheaded a campaign in 1992 to restore Michigan Central
Depot, the author's desire to preserve history inspired her to move on to a
cause personal to her and write "Our Lady of Victory."

About the Author

Shirley Slaughter lived the history growing up in this black Catholic Church
and is uniquely qualified to write about it. Shirley obtained her BBA from
Cleary University in Howell, married Langston and is active in her Oak Park
community. To learn more about the author, visit her Web site at
http://www.rememberourladyofvictory.net. The author is available for
interviews.

ISBN: 978-0-595-43482-4 - Trade Paper - 222 pages - $18.95

iUniverse is the premier book publisher (http://www.iuniverse.com) for
emerging, self-published
(http://www.iuniverse.com/Templates/content.aspx?id=78) authors. For more
information, please visit http://www.iuniverse.com.

Contact:
Carol Hoenig
Phone: 516-435-7545
E-mail: Carolhoenig@carolhoenig.com

This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information, visit
http://www.ereleases.com.

SOURCE iUniverse

Carol Hoenig of iUniverse, +1-516-435-7545, Carolhoenig@carolhoenig.com