Letters to My Sisters: Advice From Black Women Alumnae About How to Thrive and Survive in College

Abstract

The college success of Black women has often been narrowly defined by outcome data and does not consider some of the challenges they experience that are often racialized and gendered. Despite the increase in the number of Black women attending and graduating from college, few authors have highlighted the unique strategies that help facilitate their success. What remains unclear is how Black women define college success for themselves and what is necessary for them to thrive and survive in higher education. The purpose of this article is to garner insight from Black women alumnae about what facilitates college success. We present a letter-writing conceptual framework rooted in Black feminist theorizing as a way to elevate Black women’s knowledge. These letters offer a 60-year historical examination of advice by Black women for Black women. The data for this analysis came from a larger critical oral history project of 105 Black women that focused on reflections of their college experiences. The analysis combines Black feminist thought with Maya Angelou’s Letter to My Daughter as a conceptual framework. Findings emphasized that there is not one monolithic set of advice for Black women to be successful in college. The advice stands in contrast to the essentializing, monolithic ways in which Black women are represented in the literature. Implications may offer knowledge and support to future generations of Black college-going women and transform higher education regarding how institutions may support Black women on their campuses.

A Black feminist study of freedom, community care, and self-definition among Black college women attending predominantly White institutions.

“…Additionally, scholars suggest that Black college women build joyful and life-sustaining friendships that increase their understanding of history, self, and community (Alexander & Bodenhorn, 2015; S. Davis, 2018; Hughes, & Heuman, 2006; Reavis et al, 2022). Leath, Mims, et al (2022) found that within their friendships with other Black women at PWIs, Black women processed their experiences of discrimination, built social and professional networks with Black women who had similar interests, and moved toward affirmative understandings of their intersectional identities.…”