A Woman's Voice-the Black Woman's Voice

In honor of Women History Month, I am sharing this find, The "State of Black America 2008 in the Voice of the Black Woman" is a report released by the National Urban League. The report targets five areas addressing the condition of African-American communities. By addressing these conditions, economics, education, health, social justice and civic engagement opportunities to thrive, obtain job skills, create work and homeowner can become a reality to more African-Americans.

These issues are addressed through essays by many accomplished women. One of the essay addresses the overwhelming responsibility of raising children as a single mom. This particular mom takes the lives of four of her children. The mom is mentally unstable, however, the focus of the media was on the fact that the woman was a single mother. The media, because she was an African-American woman, left out the facts that a unstable mental ill woman with little resources was more than a little overwhelmed by her circumstances and agencies failure to response to the early signs of neglect failed to protect the children and prevent this tragic.

The essay in the executive summary suggest that poor people are invisible when in fact they are too visible and folks are unwilling to share for fear that they may end up poor:

"In “Invisibility Blues,” Maudine Cooper, president & CEO of the Greater
Washington Urban League, uses a recent tragic case in Washington D.C., involving a
mentally disturbed young woman who murdered her four children, to illustrate how
impoverished black women are often “invisible” to a society that often ignores their
needs, sometimes leading to devastating consequences. To this end, she endorses
several policies of NUL’s Opportunity Compact, which would greatly assist single, poor African-American mothers and thereby lift the “veil of invisibility” for such women."


NUL report is not speaking of the past when it tells the story of the reactionary movement of a young woman galvanizing work to engage others to make a difference as they march to protest the hanging noose case of the Jena 6 in Louisiana.

Women rock the cradles of the world. Read the abstracts of the essays here.