Black Womanist Ethics

Book excerpt: This study articulates the distinctive moral character of the Afro-American women's community. Beginning with a reconstructive history of the Afro-American woman's situation in America, the work next traces the emergence of the Black woman's literary tradition and explains its importance in expressing the moral wisdom of Black women. The life and work of Zora Neale Hurston is examined in detail for her unique contributions to the moral tradition of the Afro-American woman. A final chapter initiates a promising exchange between the works of Hurston and those of Howard Thurman and Martin Luther King, Jr. A pioneering and multi-dimensional work, 'Black Womanist Ethics' is at once a study in ethics, gender, and race.