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Softness Was Always Ours

Resilience in the Everyday

Ideas about Black women were often limited to labor and hardship, yet these images reveal something more: women being pampered, playing, planning, and yes…working—some pausing to pose and preserve their everyday fabulousness for posterity. Their lives were not confined to struggle; they cultivated moments of care, leisure, and self-definition against the grain of expectation.

Unidentified group sitting at table, undated

c. 1919–1922
Mabel Vernon Alford Collection
Photo credit: Unknown

Celebration was one way communities insisted on fullness of life in the years after World War I. Formal gatherings like this reflected networks of education, family, church, and social life that helped usher young people into adulthood with care and confidence. At a time when African Americans were often flattened in the public imagination through poverty, labor, or struggle alone, scenes like this preserve another truth: refinement, leisure, means, and social belonging were also part of the story.

Antique Photographs: Alice, undated

c. 1927–1930
William and Mary Jackson Collection
Photo credit: Unknown

Work has always carried more than wages. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, domestic labor remained one of the most common paths available to African American women, even as it demanded discipline, skill, and emotional restraint in households that rarely honored the full measure of their labor. Alice’s portrait asks viewers to see the person beyond the uniform: a young woman whose presence holds dignity, steadiness, and a life not reducible to service.

Unidentified woman in fur coat, undated

c. 1927–1932
Mabel Vernon Alford Collection
Photo credit: Unknown

During the years of the Great Depression, survival was not only measured in what people endured, but in what they continued to claim for themselves. A fur coat, careful grooming, and a composed public presence could speak to resourcefulness, pride, and the determination to remain more than circumstance. This image reminds us that even in an era of severe economic hardship, Black women preserved forms of beauty, care, and personal dignity that hardship could not fully take away.

Anne Thomas in Soc-Lit Circle, 1933

1933
Jesse O. Thomas Papers
Photo credit: Unknown

In 1933, as the Great Depression reshaped families, schools, and futures across the country, circles like this helped hold possibility in place. Literary and social clubs offered young people more than enrichment; they cultivated confidence, discipline, friendship, and a sense that their minds mattered. This photograph preserves education as a form of everyday resilience, where learning, refinement, and collective care became tools for moving through a difficult world.

Elsie A. Cuff, Virginia State College

1936
Jesse O. Thomas Papers
Photo credit: Unknown

In the 1930s, attending college was both an achievement and an act of faith in a future still being fought into being. At Virginia State College, Elsie A. Cuff belonged to a world of Black education that shaped teachers, leaders, professionals, and community builders during the hardships of the Depression era. Her portrait carries the quiet force of preparation: the belief that study, discipline, and opportunity could open paths beyond the limits imposed by the time.

Nannie Burroughs presents flowers to MacBeth star Edna Thomas

1936
Jesse O. Thomas Papers
Photo credit: Unknown

In 1936, to honor a Black woman onstage was to honor more than a performance. Edna Thomas’s role in Macbeth placed her within a tradition of artists who brought discipline, intellect, and emotional range to roles that were rarely imagined for them. Nannie Burroughs’s gesture makes the moment feel communal, a reminder that Black audiences and institutions knew how to recognize brilliance even when the wider world was slow to do so.

Four 1940 Spelman Graduates Head Procession from Sisters Chapel

1940
Ann N. Cooper Collection
Photo credit: Griffith J. Davis

In 1940, graduation marked more than the completion of study; it announced readiness for a world already on the brink of transformation. At Spelman, processions like this carried generations of labor, sacrifice, and belief across the campus and into public life. The graduates at the front become part of a longer continuum of Black women prepared to teach, lead, organize, and build futures that had not yet fully made room for them.

Women in painting class, c. 1940s (2 images)

c. 1940s
Ann N. Cooper Collection
Photo credit: Griffith J. Davis

Art-making offered another language for persistence. In a decade shaped by war, migration, and changing ideas about women’s public lives, the classroom became a place where imagination could be trained with the same seriousness as any profession. These women are not merely passing time; they are claiming study, skill, and creative authority as part of everyday life.

Marion Anderson visiting Spelman College, c. 1940s

1940
Ann N. Cooper Collection
Photo credit: Griffith J. Davis

Marian Anderson’s visit to Spelman College carried the weight of more than celebrity. One year after her historic Lincoln Memorial concert, her presence among students affirmed the power of artistry, discipline, and public grace in the face of exclusion. The women gathered around her are witnessing a model of resilience that did not require hardness: a life built through talent, restraint, and an unwavering claim to the stage.

Spelman Students Study World Events, c. 1942

c. 1942
Ann N. Cooper Collection
Photo credit: Griffith J. Davis

In 1942, studying the world meant studying a world at war. For students at Spelman, maps and current events were not distant abstractions; they were tools for understanding power, geography, citizenship, and the futures they were preparing to enter. Their attention reflects a form of resilience rooted in knowledge, the steady work of learning how to read the world even as it was being remade.

Gwendolyn Yvonne Cooper

1943
Ann N. Cooper Collection
Photo credit: Griffith J. Davis

In 1943, even a walk through a quiet neighborhood existed against the backdrop of a world at war. For young women coming of age during this period, everyday movement carried its own meaning: going to school, visiting friends, attending church, crossing town, and imagining a future beyond crisis. This image holds the calm surface of ordinary life while reminding us that resilience often lived in routine, in forward motion, and in the simple act of continuing.

Francis Fouch (Ruby Blackburn's daughter) and group at tea, undated

c. 1940s
Ruby Parks Blackburn Papers
Photo credit: Photo by Perry

Tea was never only tea. In the 1940s, when rationing shaped what families could buy, serve, and share, hospitality still remained a language of care. Gatherings like this sustained women’s networks through conversation, friendship, and mutual regard, turning limited resources into occasions of connection and grace.

Lucille V. Hill (nee King), Tuskegee Institute

1945
Lucile V. Hill Papers
Photo credit: Tuskegee Institute

By 1945, nursing education stood at the crossroads of science, service, and social change. At Tuskegee Institute, Lucille V. Hill’s training placed her within a lineage of women whose expertise strengthened families, hospitals, schools, and public health systems. Her yearbook portrait preserves a young woman preparing for work that required intelligence, composure, and care in equal measure, a profession built not only on healing bodies, but on helping communities endure.

Madeleine Berthelot, French Riviera Trip

1946
Jesse O. Thomas Papers
Photo credit: Unknown

In 1946, Europe was rebuilding, and travel carried the charge of both recovery and possibility. Madeleine Berthelot’s photographs place a Black woman in spaces often imagined without her, moving through Cannes and Nice with poise after years of global war. Her presence broadens the story of resilience beyond survival at home, reminding us that Black women also claimed movement, leisure, and worldly experience as part of their lives.

Big Bethel A.M.E. Church Choir, undated

c. 1946–1953
Henry J. & Florine D. Furlow Papers
Photo credit: Unknown

The church has long been one of the places where Black women gathered strength, voice, and authority. In choirs, auxiliaries, classrooms, kitchens, and pews, they helped sustain institutions that fed both spirit and community life. This image carries the sound of that endurance: faith made public, music made collective, and resilience lifted in harmony.

Unidentified Girl Having Tea Party w/ Toys, undated

c. 1950s
General Photographs Collection
Photo credit: Unknown

Even in the years of civil rights struggle, childhood still made room for imagination. This bedroom speaks to a world of comfort, stability, and possibility, where a girl could host a tea party, play records, ride her bicycle, and see a doll that reflected her own image. Such scenes remind us that resilience was also built at home, in spaces where Black children were allowed tenderness, abundance, and the simple freedom to play.

Three Young Ladies in Party Dresses, undated

c. 1950s
Harmon Perry Collection
Photo credit: Harmon Perry

The 1950s are often remembered through protest, but young people also lived through dances, parties, crushes, friendships, and moments of becoming. Dresses, flowers, and quiet pauses at the edge of celebration all belonged to the same world as the struggle for civil rights. Images like this preserve the emotional life of a generation coming of age while history pressed around them, reminding us that resilience also included beauty, anticipation, and the right to be young.

Unidentified Girl at Cash Register, undated

c. 1960s
General Photographs Collection
Photo credit: Reese Photography, Atlanta

This image seems to echo the earlier tea party scene, carrying a child from the world of play into the rhythms of work, money, and family enterprise. By the 1960s, Black children were growing up amid civil rights organizing, neighborhood businesses, and households that taught responsibility early. Whether pretending, helping, or learning by watching adults, a girl at the cash register suggests another kind of everyday resilience: the passing down of confidence, competence, and survival skills across generations.

Photograph: Asa G. Yancey and Family in frame, undated

c. 1960s
Dr. Asa G. Yancey, Sr., M.D. Papers
Photo credit: Unknown

A framed family portrait could hold more than likeness; it could hold a claim. In the 1960s, when Black families were still fighting for equal access to neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, and public institutions, images like this affirmed the lives they had already built with discipline and intention. The home becomes part of the story here: a place where education, professional achievement, and family continuity could be gathered, protected, and passed forward.

Florie Trice and Martha Greer Bentley

1965
National Conclave of Grady Graduate Nurses Collection
Photo credit: Unknown

Professional gatherings gave Black nurses room to honor one another beyond the demands of the ward. In 1965, as the country debated rights, access, and public responsibility, nurses were already doing the daily work of keeping communities alive. This moment speaks to a tradition of skill, service, and mutual recognition, where women who carried so much for others also made space to acknowledge one another.

Carolyn Fouch Walker (granddaughter of Ruby Blackburn) holding paper with Gov. Herman Talmadge at YMCA, undated

c. 1960s
Ruby Parks Blackburn Papers
Photo credit: Unknown

This image sits inside the complicated politics of public recognition in the 1960s. To receive an award in a civic space, even beside a figure associated with Georgia’s segregationist political order, was to occupy ground that Black communities had long been told was not fully theirs. Carolyn Fouch Walker’s presence speaks to everyday resilience as public participation: showing up, being honored, and accepting recognition without surrendering the larger demand for dignity and equal standing.

Gloria L. Smith (left) Miss Black America and Reda Wyatt (right) Miss Atlanta NAACP at Paschal Brothers Motel

1969
Harmon Perry Collection
Photo credit: Harmon Perry

By 1969, beauty had become part of a larger public argument over representation, pride, and power. Miss Black America and Miss Atlanta NAACP stood in a world where Black women were naming their own standards, building their own platforms, and refusing to wait for institutions that had long excluded them. At Paschal Brothers Motel, a landmark of Black enterprise and civil rights-era gathering, their presence speaks to resilience as style, movement, poise, and self-definition.
Wall Panel from Physical Installation

Recommended Reading for Resilience in the Everyday

Expand each section to explore scholarship and literature related to fiction, history, mental health, collective care, and creative expression.

Fiction

Allen, Jayne. Black Girls Must Die Exhausted. New York: Harper Perennial, 2021.
A contemporary novel about a young Black woman facing career pressures, fertility struggles, and societal expectations. It reframes resilience as navigating modern womanhood while carving out joy and self-worth.

Bayron, Kalynn. This Poison Heart. New York: Bloomsbury YA, 2021.
A YA fantasy novel about a Black teen with a magical connection to plants, navigating family secrets and self-discovery. Through its mix of danger and beauty, it highlights resilience as both inheritance and empowerment.

Green, Myunique C. Anywhere But Here. Self-published, 2020.
This psychological thriller follows characters wrestling with survival amid emotional and social turmoil. The narrative affirms resilience as persistence in the most chaotic and uncertain circumstances.

Hammonds, Jas. We Deserve Monuments. New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2022.
This YA contemporary novel weaves family secrets, queer love, and the weight of inherited trauma. It portrays resilience in confronting racism and silence, while affirming love, truth, and memory as forms of survival.

James, Marsela. Between Shadows and Tides. Atlanta: Self-published, 2024.
Blending folklore and coming-of-age, this YA novel explores identity and endurance against both mythic and real-world challenges. It casts resilience as finding strength through storytelling and cultural memory.

Miller, Vanessa. The Filling Station. New York: Thomas Nelson, 2022.
A historical Christian novel in which a Black family transforms their service station into a place of sanctuary and care during Jim Crow. Resilience is depicted as faith, hospitality, and steadfast hope in the face of systemic injustice.

History

Cherlise, Renata. Black Archives: A Photographic Celebration of Black Life. New York: Ten Speed Press, 2022.
A stunning visual history drawn from the popular Black Archives platform, this collection of photographs celebrates everyday Black life across generations. It frames resilience as beauty in ordinary joy, community, and continuity.

Gill, Tiffany. Beauty Shop Politics: African American Women’s Activism in the Beauty Industry. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2010.
Gill examines the importance of beauty shops in the promotion of resilience, entrepreneurship, and activism in the African American community during the Jim Crow era and beyond.

Whitaker, Mark. Smoketown: The Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018.
Whitaker chronicles Pittsburgh’s overlooked Black Renaissance, showcasing musicians, journalists, and athletes whose artistry and perseverance shaped American culture. It reveals resilience as creative flourishing even amid segregation and hardship.

Self-Help & Mental Health

Berry, Abena. Bold. Black. & Becoming: A Psychology Guide to Heal & Thrive. Self-published, 2022.
Dr. Berry presents a psychological roadmap for Black women to heal from racialized trauma and embrace thriving identities. It reframes resilience not as survival alone, but as bold becoming.

Evergreen, Joy. For Black Women Only: The Power of Letting Go. Self-published, 2020.
Evergreen’s work encourages release from toxic relationships and burdens that erode mental health. She connects letting go to resilience, showing it as a pathway toward peace and renewal.

Giscombé, Cheryl L. Woods. The Black Woman’s Guide to Coping with Stress: Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Skills to Create a Life of Joy and Well-Being. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, 2023.
Written by a nurse and researcher, this guide blends clinical strategies with culturally attuned practices for stress management. It emphasizes how self-compassion and mindfulness nurture resilience in daily life.

Laughter, Krystle. Love Yourself First: How to Heal from Toxic People, Create Healthy Relationships & Become a Confident Woman. Atlanta: Confident Woman Publishing, 2020.
Part of the “Love Yourself First” series, this book situates resilience in boundary-setting, relationship health, and confidence. It highlights everyday acts of self-preservation as foundations of joy.

Leiba, Elizabeth. I’m Not Yelling: A Black Woman’s Guide to Navigating the Workplace. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2022.
Leiba offers practical strategies, affirmations, and cultural insight for Black women facing microaggressions and systemic bias at work. She reframes resilience as clarity, confidence, and the power of owning one’s voice.

Lewis-Giggetts, Tracey Michae’l. Black Joy: Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration. New York: Gallery Books, 2021.
A moving collection of essays celebrating joy as an act of resistance, this work reclaims happiness as central to resilience. The stories highlight how Black communities cultivate restoration in ordinary and extraordinary ways.

Magoro, Alicia. Emotional Self-Care for Black Women: Discover How to Raise Your Self-Esteem, Eliminate Negative Thinking and Heal from Past Traumas Even if Your Life is Chaotic Right Now. Self-published, 2021.
This practical manual offers affirmations and step-by-step tools for emotional healing. It positions self-care as a daily act of resilience amid life’s chaos.

Marie, Jasmine. Black Girls Breathing: Heal from Trauma, Combat Chronic Stress, and Find Your Freedom. New York: Penguin Life, 2024.
Grounded in breathwork and mindfulness, Marie’s book provides tools for healing intergenerational trauma and chronic stress in Black women’s lives. It frames everyday resilience as rooted in intentional care, rest, and reclaiming bodily freedom.

Winters, Mary-Frances. Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit. Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2020.
Winters exposes the cumulative toll of systemic racism on health and wellness, coining “Black fatigue” to describe its intergenerational impact. Yet by naming the harm, the book provides pathways toward healing and collective resilience.

Social Justice & Collective Care

Beauboeuf-Lafontant, Tamara. Behind the Mask of the Strong Black Woman: Voice and the Embodiment of a Costly Performance. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2009.
A groundbreaking feminist analysis of the “Strong Black Woman” trope, showing how societal expectations of strength create harm. It reframes resilience as allowing vulnerability, voice, and truth.

Gordon, Tamela J. Hood Wellness: Tales of Communal Care from People Who Drowned on Dry Land. Baltimore: Black Odyssey Media, 2022.
Through essays and personal reflection, Gordon amplifies stories of resilience in under-resourced communities. She centers communal care as wellness, showing how everyday acts of support sustain life and hope.

Hersey, Tricia. Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto. New York: Little, Brown Spark, 2022.
Founder of The Nap Ministry, Hersey calls rest a form of resistance against grind culture and systemic oppression. The book reframes sleep, leisure, and refusal as radical practices of everyday resilience.

Hersey, Tricia. We Will Rest!: The Art of Escape. New York: Little, Brown Spark, 2024.
A poetic continuation of her manifesto, Hersey blends art, spirituality, and activism to declare rest a communal right. She casts resilience as not only individual restoration but collective liberation from exhaustion.

Hersey, Tricia. Rest Is Resistance: Free Yourself from Grind Culture and Reclaim Your Life. New York: Little, Brown Spark, 2023.
This companion edition expands on Hersey’s earlier work, offering practical reflections on embracing leisure, joy, and unproductivity. It highlights resilience as a daily rejection of exploitation.

McCullough, Alishia. Reclaiming the Black Body: Nourishing the Home Within. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, 2022.
McCullough, a therapist and body-justice advocate, weaves narrative and guidance on healing from racialized trauma through body care and nourishment. The book situates resilience in reclaiming the body as sacred home.

Page, Cara, and Erica Woodland. Healing Justice Lineages: Dreaming at the Crossroads of Liberation, Collective Care, and Safety. New York: North Atlantic Books, 2023.
This collection traces the origins and practices of healing justice, highlighting how Black, Indigenous, queer, and disabled communities create safety and care beyond traditional systems. It reframes resilience as communal and collective, rooted in liberation work.

Poetry & Creative Expression

Hill, Jsei, and Milk and Melts. Moments of Her: A Collection of Everyday Life of Black Women in 40 Beautiful Coloring Pages Capturing the Soft Life. Self-published, 2023.
This adult coloring book transforms everyday scenes of leisure into a meditative practice of resilience. By depicting Black women resting, creating, and enjoying joy, it affirms the radical power of softness in the everyday.

Mara J. “Worn but Whole”: Poems of Healing, Black Womanhood, and the Journey to Wholeness. Self-published, 2021.
This poetry collection explores survival and recovery, centering Black womanhood as both scarred and unbreakable. Each piece affirms resilience as beauty in healing and strength in softness.

 

 

 

 

"If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive."

— Audre Lorde

 

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