From Suffering to Thriving: Narratives of Historical Trauma among African Americans Living in the South

• In Event: 2254 - Culture and Narrative

Abstract

Historical trauma refers to a complex and collective trauma experienced over time and across generations by a group of people who share an identity, affiliation, or circumstance. The framework of historical trauma emerged from a growing multidisciplinary interest in trauma, as well as a movement towards understanding culturally specific, critical approaches, to the health of minoritized populations. Surprisingly, although African Americans have suffered similar forms of racialized violence and oppression as the populations examined under the historical trauma framework, Africa American experiences are largely absent from this work. Recent proponents of historical trauma argue it may best be conceptualized as a collective narrative, or a socially endorsed memory, embedded within a marginalized group that links history to present trauma and resilience. This project aims to expand our understandings of African American historical trauma by uncovering the collective, culturally endorsed narratives that emerged among African Americans living in the South. Using a narrative approach, via qualitative interviewing (n=30), we found two unique, but interlocking, narratives of erasure and collective resilience, previously unidentified in the literature of historical trauma among other marginalized populations. By examining these collective narratives, we may gain a better understanding of the role of historical trauma in racial health disparities, but also shed new on the collective identity of African Americans in the South.

Authors

• Andrea Henderson, University of South Carolina

• C. Spencer Platt, University of South Carolina

• Mia J Brantley, University of South Carolina

• Emily S. Mann, University of South Carolina