Child-centred Matriarch or Mother Among Other Things? Race and the Construction of Working-class Motherhood in Late Twentieth-century Britain

Abstract This article examines and centres the activism and experiences of Black mothers to demonstrate the primacy of race in the construction working-class motherhood in late twentieth-century Britain. While recent scholarship has demonstrated the way in which working-class mothers could be vectors of social change in post-war Britain, it has obscured the experience of Black mothers. This study addresses the ethnic bias in the historiography of motherhood by drawing on the personal testimony of Black mothers, as well as the campaign literature generated by grassroots organizations in Britain’s inner cities. It corroborates recent scholarship by demonstrating that by participating in tenant’s’ associations, playgroups, and mothers’ groups, working-class mothers developed a mode of motherhood that worked around their own practical needs and demands. However, it argues that these opportunities for assertiveness were refracted through the lived experience of both systemic and interpersonal racism that Black women faced in post-imperial and post-industrial Britain. Moreover, by examining the community efforts taken by Black women in inner-city areas, the study also contributes to recent studies on race, class, and community activism in urban Britain. It demonstrates that the intersecting experiences of race and class could combine to produce forms of community activism among mothers, particularly in the form of tenants’ associations. However, racism continued to persist in inner city neighbourhoods, which isolated Black mothers from mother-centred community groups. Examining motherhood at the granular level, this article demonstrates the importance of viewing the British working-class from the perspective of not only gender, but also race.