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Knowledge is power-Francis Bacon My to do list for my contribution to the wikipedia article on Black Matriarchy is to add the following: Articles ,Book sources,Citations,Pictures, Scholarly articles , And Videos.

Black matriarchy was a popular stereotype in the 1950's and 1960's that particularly exemplified black American low income family households. This ideology depicted traditional black American households as being dominated and controlled by outspoken women who emasculated men. In essence, matriarchy is significantly aimed towards a woman, more often a mother that has a central role in political leadership, moral authority, and control of property. On the other hand, in Black Matriarchy, characteristics that exemplified a matriarch was associated by her very religious ways, parenting style; which initiated motherhood as a number one priority in her life, regarded men as undependable, and attempted to shield her children from and prepare them to accept prejudice of the white world. In addition, the role of motherhood that black women of this time period were expected to fulfill created a paradox known as the superwoman. This image of the superwoman portrayed the black mother as someone who had to be a traditional good mother: nurturing and caring towards her children, but at the same time she was stigmatized and sought to be unfeminine, strong willed and too domineering. According to sociologist Daniel Patrick Moynihan, power in Black American households stemmed from the subjugating power that Black women never possessed. In addition, Moynihan’s 1965 thesis on Black families suggest that slavery destroyed Black families by creating reversed gender roles of men and women. Essentially, matriarchy is seen as deviance due to the fact that it challenges the patriarchy way of society. Moynihan’s outlook on Black Matriarchy developed what is known as the myth of black matriarchy. His beliefs that Black Matriarchy worked to generate a false sense of authority that was attributed to black women due to their participation in the labor force and their contributions in the household. Some argue that the “authority” of the matriarchal figure as a family provider was an application of personal power instead of a means for survival.

During the time of the Civil Rights Movement conflicts of the women’s leadership role in the home led men depicted as week and subjected to matriarchy. Black families were poverty-stricken, and faced issues such as racism, violence, and discrimination based solely on the color of their skin. Consequently, due to these issues, the family dynamic was changed as many black men could not get jobs to support his family. As a result, women had no other choice but to join the labor force in order to prevent their families from starving and many women become the head family provider. Since mothers spent most of the day working, they delegated work to their daughters such as domestic work like cooking and cleaning in order to earn money in order to keep clothing on their backs, and food on the table. As a mammy, black mothers took on the role of raising White families children for a low wage, but the job paid just enough to get by. Moreover, this stereotypical image of the black matriarchy was a part of racial suppression. Like the mammy, the image of the matriarch is central to intersecting oppression's of class, gender, and race. While at first glance the matriarch may appear far removed from issues in the U.S. capitalist development, this image is actually important in explaining the persistence of black social class outcomes (Collins,93).