Glorious Hats for Women with Great Taste

The church hat. Hmmmm. I'd like to see more of those. I found this article...

By Maria Papadopoulos
ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
Posted Oct 27, 2008 @ 03:58 AM
Last update Oct 27, 2008 @ 10:57 AM

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BROCKTON - Christine Terry donned a cranberry-colored hat to attend service at Mount Moriah Baptist Church on Pleasant Street on Sunday.

The Holbrook resident says she has about 30 hats to choose from at home to coordinate with her church outfits.

"It's a tradition," Terry, 65, a parishioner for 27 years, said of wearing a hat to Sunday worship. "When you come as a lady to the church, you wear a hat in reverence to the Lord."

She was among about a dozen church ladies who drew attention from the local academic community for wearing hats to church on Sunday.

The ladies, parishioners of Mount Moriah Baptist Church and Messiah Baptist Church on Legion Parkway, were interviewed by Bridgewater State College students as part of an undergraduate research project.

The project, a collaborative effort between the college's Center of Multicultural Affairs, Office of Undergraduate Research and African-American Studies program, will focus on the role that church hats play in African-American ladies' culture, officials said.

The project is based on the book "Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats."

Annie Jackson, 61, of Brockton, has worn hats to church her entire life.

"I grew up around hats. My mother and grandmother wore hats," Jackson said as she showed off a fancy, brown hat Sunday.

But younger parishioners are shying away from wearing hats to church, some parishioners said.

"I don't like them. I just thing they're too big," said Ivette Mancortes, 15, of Brockton, a parishioner of Mount Moriah Baptist Church. "It messes up your hair."

The teen said she owns hats but she rarely wears them.

"The hats that I do wear are for the sun, or playing outside," she said.

But her mother, Olga Mancortes, said she was raised in Maryland to wear hats to church. If she has a hat to match her suit, she said she wears it.

"I love hats and I think hats are very elegant," Mancortes, 67, said.

Maria Papadopoulos can be reached at mpapadopoulos@enterprisenews.com.