Getting in Grown Folks’ Business: Reclaiming the Histories of Black Women Teachers through Endarkened Archival Practice

• In Event: Remembering a Way Forward by Reclaiming the Past

Abstract

Black women are often missing from traditional archival preservation and dominant educational historiographies. This paper introduces getting in grown folks’ business, a daughter-researcher methodology rooted in Black Southern paradigms, womanism, and endarkened epistemologies, to engage family archives and oral histories as valid historical sources. This reflexive approach engages the complexities of (re)visiting family archives as both relative and researcher to gain access to previously restricted stories and materials. In my discussion of this methodology, I examine my great aunt’s teaching identity and influence through teaching memorabilia and oral histories from colleagues, family, and students. This inquiry situates her story within a broader historiography of Black women educators, challenges traditional archives, and contributes to a more inclusive educational history.

Author

• Asia S. Thomas, Augusta State University