The History of Grandmothers in the African‐American Community

Abstract

This article examines the role of grandmothers in the African‐American community from Reconstruction through the New Deal. It suggests that grandmothers were central to the economic survival of their families and worked as long as they lived, in paid labor and household labor, to help provide for their families. Grandmothers had many roles in their communities: they were midwives, purveyors of domestic medicine, and caretakers of children. Grandmothers were the source of oral histories and narratives that helped their grandchildren resist the oppression of the larger society. This early role is linked to the role of grandmothers since World War II.