LaShawnDa Pittman, whose realblackgrandmothers.com website presents oral histories of Black grandmothers, said Black children are at least twice as likely to be cared for by a grandparent as are children of other races and ethnicities.
“After slavery, it was grandmothers who reconstituted the family and maintained family ties through reunions, church and child-rearing,” Pittman said in a statement. “Today, grandparents step in when parents are unable to meet a child’s needs, and in the Black community, it’s not assumed that they always can. Raising children is a collective endeavor, and grandmothers are key to that collectivity.
“I hope that like other archives that hold the stories of African-Americans, Real Black Grandmothers can be a useful educational, historical, and even inspirational tool for generations to come,” she said.
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