He is encouraging attendees to wear their own crowns on Sunday and show off their finest fancy church hats. The event, which is free, is part of the Capital Area District Library's celebration of ...

Cunningham, a commercial photographer living in Winston-Salem, came up with the idea for the book after a friend returned from a family reunion bedazzled by all the fancy church hats she saw.

It's about more than just wearing a fancy hat to church, but about walking into God's house feeling your best both inside and out, said Ellis, daughter of the late Bishop William Abney.

“They don't get to dress up during the week, so Sunday was the day they would dress up, go to church and put on this big fancy crown – colorful hats decorated with sequins and bows.

Muskegon's Laura Clifford loves hats and suits for Sunday, but she's not afraid to take a cue from younger women during the rest of the week. She wears leather pants when she shoots pool, for example.

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 ...

The words bold, colorful and beautiful are stamped in large black letters on a wall with more than a dozen fancy church hats on pedestals below. The three words are suitable yet lacking in ...

1 of 10 A woman sports a fancy hat before the start of the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

The fancy hats, adorned with feathers and jewels, are reserved for church functions and special occasions. Harley's day-to-day hats are slightly more casual, but they're equally as eye-catching ...

If you still need to complete your Easter outfit for Sunday, you might want to consider a big, fancy hat to top it off.