Watch Forbidden Black Love: America’s Hidden Civil Rights Issue

Forbidden Black Love: America’s Hidden Civil Rights Issue
A conversation with author, Dianne Stuart

It is no secret that marriage is not what it used to be in America.  Over the last century, marriage rates declined, and divorce rates increased by record numbers for all Americans, regardless of racial/ethnic background, and trends are already indicating similar patterns for the beginning of the 21st century.

The data pertaining to rates of marriage among Black women across every demographic, however, register a distinctive social reality. Over seventy percent of Black women are unmarried in America, and most are not single by choice. When the search for love is a struggle, or a relationship ends, the “failure” can feel entirely personal. But as Dr. Dianne Stewart reveals Black women seeking satisfying long-term relationships with Black men are working against the headwinds of 400 years of history, racist policies, and deep-seated prejudice.

Sharing insights from her 2020 book, Black Women, Black Love: America’s War on African American Marriage, in conversation with Dr. Andrea White, Dr. Stewart will draw on research in American history, social science, and theology to track how the sociopolitical arrangements of white supremacy have systematically broken the heart of Black America from the era of racial slavery to the period of the prison-industrial complex.

Beyond exposing this tragedy of “forbidden Black love” as America’s unrecognized civil rights issue, Professor Stewart will discuss steps that activists, institutions, public servants, and ordinary Americans must take to create the conditions for healthy Black love and family life to flourish in our nation. Join us for this powerful presentation and discussion moderated by Rev. Dr. Andrea White.