A rainbow in the clouds: planting spiritual reconciliation in mama's southern garden, 2016

Through a content analysis of the maternal relationships in Maya Angelous I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Alice Walkers In Search of Our Mothers Gardens, the author evaluates how southern black women writers construct black motherhood. This study is based on the premise that Eurocentric paradigms of motherhood confine black mothers to controlling images that continue to criminalize, distort, and devalue black motherhood. The researcher finds that the institution of black motherhood exists independently of Eurocentric paradigms. The conclusions drawn from these findings suggest that black women writers construct motherhood in terms of Womanist leadership. In the aforementioned memoirs, Womanist leadership is learned and defined in the black church. In summation, this thesis finds that southern black women writers use spiritual reconciliation as a form of Womanist leadership. KEY TERMS: Black motherhood, maternal relationships, church mothers, spiritual reconciliation, womanist leadership, southern black women writers, African American Studies, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Women's Studie