For generations, church sanctuaries across the nation on Sunday mornings, especially in black churches and especially on Easter, transformed into a collage of hats: straw ones, felt ones, velvet ...

Church hats are also a testament to the women's history. All of them said they grew up with mothers, aunts and grandmothers who wore hats to church. Some of the women started wearing hats in their ...

A new off-Broadway play is all about hats -- sort of. Crowns tells the story of six African-American women through the hats they wear to church. For Weekend Edition Saturday, Jeff Lunden reports ...

The Black women’s church aesthetic has always centered hats and over time they have developed from patterned headwraps to elaborate wide-brimmed beauties.

Not the hat. The only person who'd touch a woman's hat is someone who doesn't wear hats," she says in the new book "Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats." "Admire it from a distance ...

And, therefore, when women went to church, they filled their churches with crowns of all sizes, designs and sizes. Gail Lowe, who created a 2000 Smithsonian exhibit on African-American faith, said ...

“Our ladies do wear their hats,” said Church of God in Christ Presiding Bishop Charles Blake. “They have that in common with the Queen of England.” ...