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Jun. 30 | 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies due
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Resources: Abstracts of American Studies Dissertations
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Hilton, Angela. "Motherhood on Trial: Black Mothers wit Incarcerated Sons Negotiating the Criminal Justice System in African American Literature," American Studies, Purdue University, December 2005.
The high rate of incarceration of African-American men in the United States often places black mothers in a position where they must learn to negotiate the criminal justice system on behalf of their incarcerated sons. As an interdisciplinary project, this dissertation analyzes how these mothers are affected by the criminal justice system, while also demonstrating how African-American literature contributes significant insights to the emergent field of Prison Studies. This study focuses on literary works from various African-American writers who tackle issues related to black motherhood and incarceration that are sorely missing from sociological approaches to this topic. In these works, black mothers grapple with the juvenile system, death row, visiting an incarcerated son, and their own personal encounters with the legal system as perpetrators of various crimes. These black mothers are able to use their agency against the criminal justice system. Overall, these works of African-American literature reveal that black motherhood is in danger in the United States. The toll that having an incarcerated son takes on mothers, combined with the oppressive rates of incarceration for black men, leads to the unpleasant conclusion that the criminal justice system actually defines many aspects of what it means to be a black mother in America today. In an attempt to counteract the negative effects of the criminal justice system on their lives, many black mothers have moved from agency to activism and have become involved in various social movements aimed at helping them overcome the challenges they face as black mothers with incarcerated sons. The conclusion of this dissertation discusses some of these activist groups in addition to interviews with two black mothers who have experienced an incarceration crisis.
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