Readers of the Quilt: Essays on Being Black, Female, and Literate (Understanding Education and Policy Series)

The collection of essays in this book is a documentation of the many ways in which Black women see themselves as literate, productive citizens. Their stories, as well as their writing of these documents, represent another phase in the journey of Blacks women's literacy evolution in this country. Whether the women write about functional, school, media, maternal, traditional, workplace, or computational literacy, the writers find themselves seeking ways to share their knowledge and to widen the degree of agency that they exercise in society. Further, the women enumerate the ways in which we must now become aware of the Black woman's role in the growth of literate practices and the role that literacy plays in the development of all aspects of our society.

As Black women are written off by society if they do not meet the criteria of those in power, and as class- and race-based language is continually used to represent Black literate women, this book offers a cutting-edge look at crucial literacy issues for the 21st century.