The Strong Black Woman: How a Myth Endangers the Physical and Mental Health of Black Women
by Marita Golden
is the 2021 Winner of SCN’s Sarton Award for Nonfiction.
To be a Black woman in America is to know that you cannot protect your children or guarantee their safety, that your value is consistently questioned, and that even being twice as good is often not good enough. Consequently, Black women disproportionately experience anxiety and depression. Studies now conclusively connect racism and mental health—and physical health.
This is the premise behind Marita Golden’s award-winning book, The Strong Black Woman Syndrome: How a Myth Endangers the Physical and Mental Health of Black Women.
The book is the winner of Story Circle Network’s Sarton Award for nonfiction. Marita says she was inspired by a personal health scare to write the book, that her predicament moved her “to be part of the conversation about dismantling the toxic aspects of the strong Black woman complex.”
Marita grew up in Washington D.C. where she attended the city’s public schools. She received a bachelor’s degree from American University and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.
She credits her parents for making her a writer. “My father told me bedtime stories about heroes and heroines of Black history and so I learned from an early age what made a good story and the power of stories.” She also says her journalism studies provided a great training ground for writing and the discipline she needed.
Marita, who is the author of almost a dozen books and has her work included in half a dozen anthologies, says she started writing at a very early age. “Poems, letters to the editor in high school. and in college working for the student newspapers.”
She said a fellow she was dating in college was a journalist, and that he told her he got paid to be curious. “That appealed to me. So, after Columbia. I was a freelance writer for several years while working in publishing.” Over the years, Marita has had articles published in many magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and Essence Magazine.
“Then I went to live in Nigeria with my first husband, which gave me the material for my first book, Migrations of the Heart … I love all my books but I guess my first book would mean the most to me because it proved I could do something that I always wanted to do.”
Migrations of the Heart, published in 1983, is a memoir based on Marita’s experiences coming of age during the 1960s, her political activism, and her life during the four years she spent in Nigeria.
Marita is cofounder of the Hurston/Wright Foundation, whose mission is to discover, mentor, and honor Black writers. “That, and other forms of literary activism, is a big part of my life,” she says, adding that it has allowed her to create supportive communities and institutions for Black writers. “I had a number of mentors who encouraged me to believe in my talent and I try to do the same with the students I work with,” Marita says.
Marita is also co-founder of the Washington, D.C.-based African-American Writers Guild.
As for her award-winning book, The Strong Black Woman Syndrome, she says she has been gratified by the response the book has been receiving, and the invitations she has received to speak on the topic.
For generations, in response to systemic racism, Black women and African American culture created the persona of the Strong Black Woman, a woman who, motivated by service and sacrifice, handles, manages, and overcomes any problem, any obstacle. The syndrome calls on Black women to be the problem-solvers and chief caretakers for everyone in their lives. Never buckling, never feeling vulnerable, and never bothering with their pain, explains Marita.
“Winning the Sarton Award is important validation. I was a fan of May Sarton and admired greatly what she did in her writing and in her life,” the author says.
But Marita has also been the recipient of many other awards, including in 2001 the Barnes and Noble Writers for Writers Award, the 2002 Distinguished Service Award from the Authors Guild, the 2007 Award for Fiction from the Black Caucus of the Association of Maryland Librarians, the 2008 Maryland Author Award from the Association of Maryland Librarians, and the 2018 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Fiction.
And she’s not done yet. “I’m currently working on a new novel,” Marita says.
Pat Bean is an SCN Board member and a regular contributor to the Journal. A retired award-winning journalist, she traveled the country in a small RV for nine years with her canine companion, Maggie. Her book about that time is Travels with Maggie. Pat is passionate about nature, writing, art, family, and her new dog, Scamp. She blogs at https://patbean.net/.
