Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Chaka Khan I'm Every Woman

Black Women in Alabama

"Only the BLACK WOMAN can say "when and where I enter, in the quiet, undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing or special patronage, then and there the whole Negro race enters with me." ~Dr. Anna Julia Cooper


Since they landed in America, Black women have held a precarious position within American society.  From the enslavement period through the twenty-first century, Black women have been identified with and defined by their race and their gender.  Power relationships often dictated how they were defined by others.  Many times, for example, they had no control over how they were depicted.  At other times, however, Black women were historical agents, actively creating and carefully constructing the images that they wanted others to see.

I hope to tell the stories of black women from a variety of socioeconomic levels and to show how their lives were shaped by the dynamics of race, class, and gender in Alabama and vice-versa.  Sounds so academic... I want to present historical black women from Alabama--women who had an effect on their communities, raised families, worked jobs, served in churches, taught school, worked as domestics, were seamstresses, cooks, nannies, nurses, housewives, but whose lives were important.