cover image Sister Power: How Phenomenal Black Women Are Rising to the Top

Sister Power: How Phenomenal Black Women Are Rising to the Top

Patricia Reid-Merritt. John Wiley & Sons, $22.95 (214pp) ISBN 978-0-471-10461-2

In this exploration of female African American leaders, Reid-Merritt, a community activist and professor of social work and African American studies at Richard Stockton State College in New Jersey, describes contemporary success stories of black women. Her 45 interviewees have diverse titles, including the president of the National Education Association, Mary Hartwood Futrell; Indiana attorney general Pamela Carter; Ms. magazine editor-in-chief Marcia Gillespie; and the CEO of PUSH, Willie Barrow. Their interesting and inspiring life stories reveal childhoods that, even when economically impoverished, were marked by a nurturing parent figure and supportive black community that fostered achievement and provided a spiritual foundation. The racism and sexism the women struggled against is also discussed. Although Reid-Merritt comments at length on the problems these powerful women have in their personal relationships with men, she does not include the experiences of lesbian African American leaders. Author tour. (Sept.)