Although today the largest religious denomination in the United States, until the 1960s the Roman Catholic Church represented less than 1% of North Carolina's population. Tar Heel Catholics recounts the story of the Catholic Church in what was long called "mission territory" on the doorstep of a rapidly developing American Catholic institutional presence. The explanation of this phenomenon lies in the history of the Deep South itself, including slavery, segregation, and the overwhelming religious dominance of the Baptist church.