Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Zabriskie, Queen

Area of Concentration

Gender Studies

Abstract

In this thesis, I explore the life of my grandmother, Mary Theresa Robertson, through an analysis of four oral history interviews. In her interviews, my grandmother discusses her experiences, from her birth in St. Martinville, Louisiana in 1934 to her present-day life in Anniston, Alabama. I use Patricia Hill Collins’ formulation of a Black feminist activist tradition, which argues about the significance of the everyday acts of resistance by Black women in the U.S., as a theoretical framework. I pose the following research question: How does my grandmother’s life help to illuminate a Black feminist activist tradition? I argue that, although she does not explicitly identify as a black feminist activist, my grandmother’s life illuminates this tradition because of how she navigated the different types of oppressions she faced as an African-American woman in the United States. I discuss three major themes— her experience of motherhood, her navigation of the workforce, and her ongoing practices of survival and resilience —as I make sense of my grandmother’s life and experiences.

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