Departing from conventional studies of black women, which characterize them as domineering matriarchs, prostitutes and welfare queens, this text uses the concept of a collective memory to show how black women cope with and interpret lives often pervaded with racial barriers not of their making.

Studies of contemporary black women are rare and scattered, and are often extensions of a legacy beginning in the 19th century that characterized black women as domineering matriarchs, prostitutes, or welfare queens, negative characterizations that are perpetuated by both white and non-white social scientists. Based on over 200 interviews, this book departs from these conventions in significant ways, and, using a "collective memory" conceptual framework, shows how black women cope with and interpret lives often limited by racial barriers not of their making.