Black Women in America

Nominated for the 1995 Distinguished Publication Award of the Association for Women in Psychology A provocative insightful volume Black Women in America offers an interdisciplinary study of black women′s historic activism representation in literature and popular media self-constructed images and current psychosocial challenges. This new work by outstanding scholars in the field of race and gender studies explores the ways in which black women have constantly reconstructed and transformed alien definitions of black womanhood. Black women have an image of themselves that differs from those others impose. Collectively the contributors to this anthology demonstrate that such socially constructed images hide the complexities and ambiguities the challenges and the joys experienced in the real lives of black women. Multifaceted in its approach Black Women in America is certain to stimulate debate stretch minds and spark future research. Black Women in America is a welcome resource for scholars and students in African American or Ethnic Studies Women′s Studies Sociology and Psychology. The volume can be helpful in stimulating questions and discussion for students in African American studies. --Choice Black Women in America combines social history with contemporary analysis in one of the most thoughtful of scholarly compendia I have ever seen. It will be useful to scholars who teach history sociology African American studies and women′s studies but also to any American interested in a deeper and broader understanding of America′s past present and future. --Sarah Susannah Willie Colby College Maine At a time when several anthologies of essays by and about black women are hitting the shelves Kim Marie Vaz′s volume boasts an unusual and inventive mix of topics. It treats a range of historical eras and geographical locations. . . . The apt emphasis on resistance rather than victimization is apparent throughout the essays I read; it provides an excellent focal point. . . . In all Vaz′s editorial contribution is admirable. She has collected an impressively wide-ranging group of essays on the history sociology and culture of black women. Interdisciplinary in its approach and sound in its scholarship the volume will be welcomed by scholars and students in African American studies and women′s studies in particular but also history sociology and political science. --Cheryl Ann Wall Rutgers University