Golden Queens: African American Girls Contextualizing Talking With Attitude

• In Event: Umoja: On One Accord, the Right to Know, Think, and Aspire Among African American Girls

Abstract

In 1906 WEB DuBois wrote the Niagara Movement Address, one of the precursors to the formation of the NAACP. He wrote, “Education is the development of power and ideal… We want our children trained as intelligent human beings should be, and we will fight for all time against any proposal to educate black boys and girls simply as servants and underlings, or simply for the use of other people. They have a right to know, to think, to aspire.” It is now 2023, and the mantra is the same. We are currently working with 5th and 6th grade African American girls who reside on a continuum of being academically strong or academically challenged, while experiencing challenges in the area of behavior and the perceptions of their attitude. The research is virtually void in listening to their voices. They deserve to be heard. They call themselves the Golden Queens! They have an “attitude of gratitude.” This study shares the results of weekly meetings pre (2018-2019) and post Co-VID (2022-23) to highlight their voices.

Authors

• Sonia Marie Marrero, North Carolina A&T State University

• Tanisha Graham, Texas A&M University