Marriage in Black The Pursuit of Married Life among American-born and Immigrant Blacks

Despite the messages we hear from social scientists, policymakers, and the media, black Americans do in fact get married?and many of these marriages last for decades. Marriage in Black offers a progressive perspective on black marriage that rejects talk of black relationship "pathology" in order to provide an understanding of enduring black marriage that is richly lived. The authors offer an in-depth investigation of details and contexts of black married life, and seek to empower black married couples whose intimate relationships run contrary to common?but often inaccurate?stereotypes. Considering historical influences from Antebellum slavery onward, this book investigates contemporary married life among more than 60 couples born after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Husbands and wives tell their stories, from how they met, to how they decided to marry, to what their life is like five years after the wedding and beyond. Their stories reveal the experiences of the American-born and of black immigrants from Africa or the Caribbean, with explorations of the "ideal" marriage, parenting, finances, work, conflict, the criminal justice system, religion, and race. These couples show us that black family life has richness that belies common stereotypes, with substantial variation in couples? experiences based on social class, country of origin, gender, religiosity, and family characteristics.

Acknowledgements. Chapter 1. The Socio-Historical Unshackling of African-American Relationships. Chapter 2. A Long View of Black Marriage. Chapter 3. Black Marital Beginnings. Chapter 4. Men and Women, Husbands and Wives: New Perspectives on Egalitarianism. Chapter 5: Contemporary Black Marriage and Parenting. Chapter 6: Is Marriage for Black People: Ethnic Perceptions of Blacks and the Institution of Marriage. Chapter 7: Sex, Money, and Beyond: Conflict in Contemporary Black Marriages. Chapter 8: A New Lens on Black Marriage. Appendices. Index.

Katrina Bell McDonald earned her PhD in Sociology from the University of California at Davis. She is Associate Professor of Sociology, Co-Director of the Center for Africana Studies at the Johns Hopkins University, and an Associate of the Hopkins Population Center. She joined the faculty in 1994 and teaches and conducts research on the African-American family, race and racism, racial privilege, intersectionality, and qualitative research methods. She has been happily married for 23 years.

Caitlin Cross-Barnet earned her PhD in Sociology from the Johns Hopkins University in 2010. She is a sociologist, public health researcher, and an Associate of the Hopkins Population Center. Her current research focuses on the social determinants of health. She has taught courses on research methods, public health, gender, race-ethnicity, and social inequality. She has been happily married for 26 years.