Black Women, Black Love: America’s War on African American Marriage

Dianne Marie Stewart is the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Religion and African America Studies at Emory University specializing in African heritage religious cultures in the Caribbean and the Americas. Inspired by her pedagogical investment in Black love studies and her widely celebrated courses, The Power of Black Self-Love, (co-taught with Dr. Donna Troka), Black Love and Black Women, Black Love and the Pursuit of Happiness, Dr. Stewart spent a number of years researching and writing Black Women, Black Love: America’s War on African American Marriage, which was published by Seal Press in 2020. Intended to reach wide academic and public audiences, the book examines the structural forces that, across four centuries, have made coupling and marriage difficult, delayed or impossible for millions of Black women in the United States and reveals how White supremacy has systematically broken the heart of Black America. Stewart’s public scholarship and interviews on the subject of Black love, partnership and marriage have also been published in Oprah Daily, The Washington Post and other outlets, and her insights have been quoted by CNN, Ebony and TheGrio, among others.