Powerful Black Women in the South
Abstract
The presentation will consist of a cooperative “curricular communion” of scholars to explore the lives of African American women, in the once segregated South and their contributions to society (Whitlock, 2007, p. 165). We specifically use counternarratives in order to combat the grand narrative that depicts African American women as inept, weak, feeble-minded and hyper-sexual objects. We examine how the tenants of critical race theory, critical race feminism, and womanism reveal how these women fought against the hegemonic and oppressive forces of their times, including but not limited to creating schools for African American children amidst the tyranny of racism and classism, enduring the brutality of slavery during a period in which slavery was clearly outlawed by federal and state law, and facing the ongoing stigmas associated with being African American and female while dealing with issues of power in their own communities in the South. The major purpose of this presentation is to generate ideas and dialogue about possible dissertation topics that will shed light on the power of perseverance, the pursuit of freedom, the despicable forms of dehumanization, and to contribute to the field of curriculum studies through identifying curriculum as racial and gendered text. This is an extension of “curricular communion” as it pertains to African American women in the South and the contributions that have made to the African American communities in the South (Whitlock, 2007, p. 165).
Presentation Description
This is an extension of a “curricular communion” from the Curriculum Collaborative last summer (Whitlock, 2007, p. 165). By engaging in this curricular communion, we seek to engage in a discourse in order to give voices that are typically eliminated or eradicated from the meta-narrative. Moreover we seek to illuminate the history of two African American women in the South and how these women played a significant role in the development of their families and communities. As we engage in curricular communion, we seek to partake of the mourning of the injustices that transpired in the Deep South while highlighting the hope that allowed these women to persevere in the midst of affliction and difficulty.
Keywords
African American, women, curriculum, hegemony, race, gender, class, oppression, freedom, curricular communion, critical race theory, critical race feminism, womanism, curriculum studies, counternarrative, meta-narrative, grand narrative, suppression, place, power
Location
Magnolia Room C
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Awala, Samantha O. Ms. and Hall, Marquez, "Powerful Black Women in the South" (2015). Curriculum Studies Summer Collaborative. 6.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cssc/2015/2015/6
Powerful Black Women in the South
Magnolia Room C
The presentation will consist of a cooperative “curricular communion” of scholars to explore the lives of African American women, in the once segregated South and their contributions to society (Whitlock, 2007, p. 165). We specifically use counternarratives in order to combat the grand narrative that depicts African American women as inept, weak, feeble-minded and hyper-sexual objects. We examine how the tenants of critical race theory, critical race feminism, and womanism reveal how these women fought against the hegemonic and oppressive forces of their times, including but not limited to creating schools for African American children amidst the tyranny of racism and classism, enduring the brutality of slavery during a period in which slavery was clearly outlawed by federal and state law, and facing the ongoing stigmas associated with being African American and female while dealing with issues of power in their own communities in the South. The major purpose of this presentation is to generate ideas and dialogue about possible dissertation topics that will shed light on the power of perseverance, the pursuit of freedom, the despicable forms of dehumanization, and to contribute to the field of curriculum studies through identifying curriculum as racial and gendered text. This is an extension of “curricular communion” as it pertains to African American women in the South and the contributions that have made to the African American communities in the South (Whitlock, 2007, p. 165).
