Embedded Files
Berry, D. R. & Gross, K. N. (2020). A Black women's history of the United States. Beacon Press.
Written by two award winning Black women historians, this book offers a revisionist history of the United States that centers the historical contributions, lived experiences, and resilience of Black women. It includes discussion of the inner lives, struggles, and creativity of Black women artists, performers, writers, singers, and dancers who have “given voice to our humanity” and shaped the fabric of American culture in the face of interlocking systems of oppression.
Hunter, T. W. (19981997). To 'joy my freedom: Southern Black women's lives and labors after the civil war (1st Harvard University Press pbk.). Harvard University Press.
This book gives voice to Black women in the south who worked as domestic laborers. It covers the days leading up to the end of slavery, the Civil War, the Great Migration, and World War I. This book provides a historical framework for understanding the lives, legacies, and music of Black women country blues artists in the south.
Jones, J. (2010). Labor of love labor of sorrow: Black women work and the family from slavery to the present. Basic Books.
Winner of numerous prizes and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History, this book traces the history of Black women’s labor “as enslaved workers, wage earners, nurturers, and community activist from 1830 to the present” (p. 1), looking specifically at the ways in which Black women’s labor was shaped by racialized gender ideologies. This book provides a social, historical, and cultural context for understanding the lived experiences of Black women blues musicians.
Wilkerson, I. (2020). The warmth of other suns: The epic story of America's great migration. Penguin Books.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, Wilkerson chronicles the Great Migration of Black Americans from the South to northern cities. This book provides historical context for understanding the lives of Black women blues artists and, in some cases (e.g., Memphis Minnie), their transition from country to urban blues.
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