San Antonio College Library

One hot day in June 1970, twenty-one-year-old Patrice Gaines stared through a narrow jail cell window at her baby daughter cradled in the arms of her grandfather on the street below. She called to her daughter, but she couldn't hear her through the thick barred glass. She waved, but her little daughter didn't know where to look to find her mother. In that moment of supreme isolation and loss, Patrice Gaines became determined to make something of her...

Examining a wide range of genres, including rap music, novels, spoken word poetry, hip-hop cinema and hip-hop soul music, this text explores the complex relationships between black women, hip-hop and feminism.

"Black Women, Cultural Images and Social Policy offers a critical analysis of the policy-making process. Jordan-Zachery demonstrates how social meanings surrounding the discourses on crime, welfare and family policies produce and reproduce discursive practices that maintain gender and racial hierarchies. Using critical discourse analysis (CDA), she analyzes the values and ideologies ensconced in the various images of black womanhood and their impact...

"After decades of research devoted to women's health, a federal agency focused on women's health, and millions of dollars allocated to address women's health disparities, African American women are still the sickest American citizens. This book examines why. Written by an all-female, all-African American team of health experts that include nurse practitioners, registered nurses, educators, and psychologists, this book focuses on the diseases and related...

Set in the early 1900s, tells the story of Celie, a poor black Southern woman, whose friendship with two women helps her overcome the brutality of her father and husband.

Medical professionals, chemists, social workers, and psychologists present essays on health and social issues African-American women are facing, including heart disease, sickle-cell anemia, diabetes, HIV and AIDS, poverty, racism, sexism, and several others.

Too Heavy a Load explores this century's rich history of black women defending, defining, and explaining themselves. Although most prominently a history of the century-long struggle against racism and male chauvinism, it also brings to light and celebrates twentieth-century African American women's unlauded support for women's rights, civil rights, and civil liberties. Too Heavy a Load also takes us beyond the reach of history in its moving and fascinating...

Jezebel's sexual lasciviousness, Mammy's devotion, and Sapphire's outspoken anger -- these are among the most persistent stereotypes that black women encounter in contemporary American life. Hurtful and dishonest, such representations force African American women to navigate a virtual crooked room that shames them and shapes their experiences as citizens. Many respond by assuming a mantle of strength that may convince others, and even themselves,...

"In this book, Sonja Lanehart explores how this valorization of "proper" English has affected the language, literacy, educational achievements, and self-image of five African American women--her grandmother, mother, aunt, sister, and herself. Through interviews and written statements by each woman, Lanehart draws out the life stories of these women and their attitudes toward and use of language. Making comparisons and contrasts among them, she shows...