Maintaining Black Marriage

Maintaining Black Marriage: Individual, Interpersonal, and Contextual Dynamics moves beyond the usual demographics in the study of Black marriage to focus on the communication that sustains it. Using original data and secondary research, Marianne Dainton provides the story of Black marriage success and the contexts and communication that contribute to that success. A central feature of this book is the inclusion of Black voices; that is, in addition to original quantitative research on the topic, qualitative data draws on the experiences and opinions of a group of married Black women and married Black men in order to augment, explain, challenge, and reflect the scholarly literature.

Winner of the Stone Book Award, Museum of African American History Winner of the Joan Kelly Memorial Prize Winner of the Littleton-Griswold Prize Winner of the Mary Nickliss Prize Winner of the Willie Lee Rose Prize Americans have long viewed marriage between a white man and a white woman as a sacred union. But marriages between African Americans have seldom been treated with the same reverence. This discriminatory legacy traces back to centuries of slavery, when the overwhelming majority of black married couples were bound in servitude as well as wedlock, but it does not end there. Bound in Wedlock is the first comprehensive history of African American marriage in the nineteenth century. Drawing from plantation records, legal documents, and personal family papers, it reveals the many creative ways enslaved couples found to upend white Christian ideas of marriage. “A remarkable book... Hunter has harvested stories of human resilience from the cruelest of soils... An impeccably crafted testament to the African-Americans whose ingenuity, steadfast love and hard-nosed determination protected black family life under the most trying of circumstances.” —Wall Street Journal “In this brilliantly researched book, Hunter examines the experiences of slave marriages as well as the marriages of free blacks.” —Vibe “A groundbreaking history... Illuminates the complex and flexible character of black intimacy and kinship and the precariousness of marriage in the context of racial and economic inequality. It is a brilliant book.” —Saidiya Hartman, author of Lose Your Mother

As the Civil War drew to a close, newly emancipated black women workers made their way to Atlanta--the economic hub of the newly emerging urban and industrial south--in order to build an independent and free life on the rubble of their enslaved past. In an original and dramatic work of scholarship, Tera Hunter traces their lives in the postbellum era and reveals the centrality of their labors to the African-American struggle for freedom and justice. Household laborers and washerwomen were constrained by their employers' domestic worlds but constructed their own world of work, play, negotiation, resistance, and community organization. Hunter follows African-American working women from their newfound optimism and hope at the end of the Civil War to their struggles as free domestic laborers in the homes of their former masters. We witness their drive as they build neighborhoods and networks and their energy as they enjoy leisure hours in dance halls and clubs. We learn of their militance and the way they resisted efforts to keep them economically depressed and medically victimized. Finally, we understand the despair and defeat provoked by Jim Crow laws and segregation and how they spurred large numbers of black laboring women to migrate north. Hunter weaves a rich and diverse tapestry of the culture and experience of black women workers in the post-Civil War south. Through anecdote and data, analysis and interpretation, she manages to penetrate African-American life and labor and to reveal the centrality of women at the inception--and at the heart--of the new south.

Despite the messages we hear from social scientists, policymakers, and the media, black Americans do in fact get married—and many of these marriages last for decades. Marriage in Black offers a progressive perspective on black marriage that rejects talk of black relationship "pathology" in order to provide an understanding of enduring black marriage that is richly lived. The authors offer an in-depth investigation of details and contexts of black married life, and seek to empower black married couples whose intimate relationships run contrary to common—but often inaccurate—stereotypes. Considering historical influences from Antebellum slavery onward, this book investigates contemporary married life among more than 60 couples born after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Husbands and wives tell their stories, from how they met, to how they decided to marry, to what their life is like five years after the wedding and beyond. Their stories reveal the experiences of the American-born and of black immigrants from Africa or the Caribbean, with explorations of the "ideal" marriage, parenting, finances, work, conflict, the criminal justice system, religion, and race. These couples show us that black family life has richness that belies common stereotypes, with substantial variation in couples’ experiences based on social class, country of origin, gender, religiosity, and family characteristics.

Offers a comprehensive view of the labor force activity of women & describes a range of legal & socioeconomic developments that have impacted upon women's participation & progress in the work force. Contents: women in the work force; occupations of WW; women's earnings & income; minority WW; women business owners; changing family structures & lifestyles; shifting patterns in education & training; the changing face of industry; the aging population; occupational safety & health; legal rights of WW; projections of interest to WW; & more.

"Ten of Monique and Cassandra's twenty-five tips... 1. Get your act togetha, so when you finally do meet Mr. Right, he can't resist you. 2. Smile and say "hello" to every Black man you see. 3. Forgive old lovers and make peace with them. 4. Tell everyone you know that you're looking for a husband. 5. Go on as may blind dates as possible. 6. Date men who are not your "type"--you may be pleasantly surprised. 7. If you ask a man a series of questions within the first five minutes of meeting him, he'll tell you almost anything you want to know. After that he clams up and won't tell you a thing. 8. If you realize right away he is someone you don't like but does have an interesting job or hobby, he may have a friend who's perfect for you. 9. If he's available and you like him, don't hesitate to let him know. 10. Dress conservatively. If you attract him with your body, how are you going to keep him with your mind? About six years ago, on the eve of her thirtieth birthday, Monique Jellerette was desperate to get married, but couldn't seem to find the right man. A married friend, Cassandra, offered some solid (albeit unsolicited) advice. Monique, determined to do it her own way, suffered through a few more dates from Hell before she realized Cassandra's tips might make sense. So she started putting Cassandra's suggestions to work, made up a few tricks of her own, and devised a plan of action...Six months later Monique met and married Bob and became Mrs. Monique Jellerette deJongh! Now, in How to Marry a Black Man, Mrs. Monique Jellerette deJongh and Mrs. Cassandra Marshall Cato-Louis share their secrets with women everywhere. Based on Monique andCassandra's proven techniques, and coupled with the results of all-male focus groups on what Black men are really looking for in a prospective mate, How to Marry a Black Man is part manual/journal and part workbook, and delivers the goods on how to master the dating game and find a husband.

Publishes in-depth articles on labor subjects, current labor statistics, information about current labor contracts, and book reviews.